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CHAUCER 

SPENSER 

SIDNEY 



BY 



GERTRUDE H. ELY 





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NEW YORK AND CHICAGO 

E. L KELLOGG & -CO, 






Copyright, 1894, 

BY 

Gertrude H. Ely. 



All rights reserved. 



TO MY CHILDREN j 

AND j 

THEIR FATHER i 



PREFACE. 



The following notes made from many sources were 
first suggested by an invalid mother and written for 
her diversion. Later they took name and form 
through the reading of " Plutarch for Boys and Girls " 
and Morley's " English Men of Letters," while the 
interest centred entirely in the home circle. 

Through the urgency of William L. Stone, the his- 
torian, they are being prepared for more general use ; 
and one little volume is sent forth aided by the good 
wishes, not only of Mr. Stone, but of Mrs. Fellows, 
Mrs. Richard Grant White, Hon. Smith Ely, Mr. Am- 
brose K. Ely, Mrs. Hunt, Mrs. Charles Caldwell, Mrs. 
C. F. Allan, Miss Hasbrouck, Mr. and Mrs. Senff, 
Hon. M. H. Hirschberg, Mr. and Mrs. O. M. Cleve- 
land, Miss M. E. Salisbury, Miss Dora M. Townsend, 
and others who have kindly read these narratives in 
manuscript ; and also of Miss Mary L. Hagar, who 
has assisted in preparing them for publication. 

G. H. E. 

March 15, 1895, 

4 



CONTENTS. 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 

PAGE 

Definition of letters — Chaucer's birth — Marriage — 
Early translations — " The Romance of the Rose " 
— Influence of foreign travel — Minor poems — 
Elegy to the Duchess Blanche — '* Flower and 
Leaf " — " Canterbury Tales " i 

SPENSER. 

Period from Chaucer to Spenser, 1400 to 1553 — Cov- 
ering reigns of Henry IV., V., and VI., Edwards 
IV. and v., Richard III., Henrys VII. and VIII., 
Edward VI., Wyckliffe— Wars of the Roses— The 
Pretenders — Columbus and the Cabots — Luther 
and the Reformation — Gower — James I. — Caxton 
— More — Tyndale's Bible— Latimer — Early play- 
writers — Ascham — Customs of the time. 

Spenser's family, — His childhood — Years at Cam- 
bridge — Contributions to the Miscellany — Harvey 
and Kirke — " Widow's daughter " — First poems 
— Shepherd's calendar — Secretaryship in Ireland 
— Grant of Kilcolman — Friendship with Raleigh 
— " Colin Clout's Come Home Again " — Pension 

5 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

from Elizabeth — First three books of the " Faerie 
Queene " printed — Miscellaneous poems — Mar- 
riage — Plan of the " Faerie Queene " — Return to 
London and Death 37 

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 

Bfl'th — Social position— School life— Oxford — Visit 
to the Continent — Hubert Languet — Return to 
England — L ady Penelope Devereu x — Misfor- 
tunes of his parents — Mission to Hapsburg and 
the Palatinate — Opposition to the Queen's Mar- 
riage — The " Academy " — " Arcadia " — Public 
services — Marriage — " Astrophel and Stella " — 
" Defense of Poesy " — Sonnet to " Sleep " — The 
end at Zutphen ^^ 



ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS 

FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 

All stories are founded on fact, from '* Rollo" 
and " Lucy " to " Little Lord Fauntleroy '' and 
" Sarah Crewe." They are suggested by some 
Hfe that has shed its brightness within the cir- 
cle of the author's notice, and from it is woven 
a lesson of profit or pleasure for the use of oth- 
ers. I want you to know about English men of 
letters, and as you are too young to read them 
in the words of the accomplished men who 
wrote some of the books upon the library 
shelves, I will tell you about them in my own 
words, and we will call them " English Men of 
Letters for Boys and Girls." Then let us leave 
your story-book heroes behind, and take into 
our hearts, instead, these real beings, who first 

7 



8 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

as boys, and then as men, have brought so much 
abiding good to us, because they were such 
wide-awake, wholesome, manly fellows, with 
eyes and heads that, like cameras, were con- 
stantly making plates for future development, 
and were such wonderful word-painters that 
they have preserved for us sketches of how 
people lived, thought, loved, and died in those 
long-past days. Then, too, we must not forget 
bright, busy boys of our own time who grew 
to be publishers of books, and we must thank 
them also for the clear type and well-bound 
volumes that make it so easy for me to read 
each night a chapter upon which to found the 
morrow's tale. 

We will begin with the first writer that we 
can understand, for the English language that 
we speak was in early times so different from 
that of to-day that only scholars who have 
studied it very closely can read what was writ- 
ten before the time of Geoffrey Chaucer. And 
we will also try to understand what is meant by 
English men of letters. 

Letters or literature is what men either know 
or have learned, or imagined, carefully pre- 
served in the form of writing, making thereby 
a treasury of ancient and modern languages, 
grammar, logic, rhetoric, poetry and history 
from which we can draw aid and test the strength 
of our own thoughts. Men of letters com- 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 9 

prise all who devote themselves either to the 
study of any one of these subjects or, in a gen- 
eral way, to many topics. We will define some 
of these subjects, and, understanding them, will 
notice what these writers most excelled in, and 
how they are going to help us. 

Grammar is a number of rules or principles 
by means of which there comes a form of speech 
that is accepted as correct for writing and 
speaking ; and while all languages are built upon 
a general plan alike, each having words that 
stand for things, and others for action, and still 
others for the description of both action and 
things, yet each language has points peculiar 
to itself and its people ; and just as people grow 
and improve, and accumulate property and 
treasures, so their language keeps pace with 
their prosperity and changes too : and that is 
why I want to follow these writers in succes- 
sion according to time, instead of taking those 
whom you would be most interested in at first, 
for I particularly want you to note the changes 
in the manner of writing and expressing 
thought. 

Logic teaches us how the mind acts when 
arguing a given point, and it also teaches how 
to guide the mind when trying to find a true 
reason. I see that you are greatly surprised 
to find that there is such a science, which if 
you could study very early in life would make 



lo ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

you all very modest in the expression of your 
opinions, for it is the art of reasoning, not simply 
to find any reason, but to find a true reason. 

Rhetoric in a general way can be understood 
as fine writing in prose ; descriptions that ex- 
cite our feelings in some particular manner, 
such as emotions of patriotism or reverence. 
In a more exact way it means the art of address- 
ing public gatherings in a manner to excite in- 
tense interest or to gain certain advantages, 
especially over those of an opposite opinion. 

Poetry is a composition of a purely imagina- 
tive kind, written in rhyme or measured lines 
called metre, and designed to give pleasure, to 
arouse tender sympathies, to express religious 
sentiments. In all cases its duty is to present 
thoughts that will not tire the reader, and 
ought to have some good end in view : which 
I have no doubt those poets who sing the 
praises of ivory soap and sapolio and many 
other advertised articles feel that they have ac- 
complished. But the poetry that I mean is 
like the " Children's Hour " and " The Building 
of the Ship " and others that you love to re- 
peat, which will outlive us all, and be repeated 
by many generations of boys and girls as far 
into the future as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales 
come to us from the past. 

And all these arts that I have been defin- 
ing have combined to aid the scholar whose 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. il 

life is spent in recording facts past and present 
about nations, states, and people, either as 
a whole or as individuals ; and such writing 
we call history. There is a history of ani- 
mals, vegetables, and minerals, known as nat- 
ural history, while that of individual men is 
called biography. Thus armed with an un- 
derstanding that should help your interest, we 
will find what can be gleaned from our histo- 
ries about Chaucer that will not be too hard for 
you to follow and remember. 

Not much can be said about his childhood 
because there has always been great uncer- 
tainty as to the time of his birth, although it is 
known that he died October 25th, 1400. He 
spoke of himself as '' hoar and round of shape," 
and thus we know that his hair was gray and 
he was stout. There are many allusions in his 
time by which we can infer that he lived to a 
fairly good old age. 

Man's allotted time of threescore years and 
ten would place his birth at 1330 or thereabout, 
and we know that he lived partly in the reign 
of King Edward the Third, and partly under 
King Richard the Second. We also presume 
that he was born in London, and we will try to 
imagine what London might have had to in- 
terest an unusually bright boy, what games 
he could have played, what kind of clothes he 
wore, and how he came to be a writer. Eng- 



12 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

land's population may have been four or five 
millions during Chaucer's childhood, because 
after having been decreased four times by a 
pestilential disease called the Black Death, that 
must have been far worse than the cholera or 
yellow fever of our times, we are told that 
all England contained about two and a half 
millions, and that London had about 35,000 in- 
habitants. 

We know that Windsor Castle, or that part 
of it which marks it in a moment, the great 
Round Tower, was built by Edward the Third, 
and it will be a pleasant thought to picture a 
sturdy little boy in doublet and hose, and long, 
pointed shoes, as watching the great mass of 
masonry rising against the sky, and he may like 
many others have wondered that anything so 
grand at a distance could look so rough near 
by. We will think that he ran about the streets 
of London, perhaps not with his hands in his 
pockets, because we do not know whether 
doublets had pockets for his hands to go in. 
But I am sure you will think that life withheld 
much from him if there was no way by which 
acorns, stones, apples, or nuts could be kept 
ready for use. We cannot imagine twine and 
fish-hooks, nails, screws, and old pocket-knives 
well powdered with cracker-crumbs and glued 
together by contact with molasses candy, be- 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 13 

cause we are not at all sure that little boys had 
such blessings in those days. 

His heart must have been touched by the 
sad sights of the plague, although it is said that 
onl}^ twice does he refer to it in his writings ; 
once, that might easily have described it in 
any other country, and once through a humor- 
ous description of a doctor, in which he shows 
how powerless medical men were in those days, 
for they believed in all sorts of charms and 
superstitious signs — the remnants of which 
have come even into our own day, to judge by 
the many useless farces that are called cures. 

The river Thames must have been most de- 
lightful in that early period, winding peacefully 
in and out, all unsuggestive of the great events 
that were to be chronicled about its shores and 
its own flowing surface. The little author must 
have been unconsciously refined by the balmy 
spring days, and by the lessons that nature is 
ever ready to teach those who will learn to 
read her open book. He must have loved the 
birds in the leafy shelters of the trees, old even 
then, that shaded the banks of this historic 
river, and he doubtless knew the luxury of 
sporting in its cool waters by many a venture- 
some dive and swim. Thus we could go on 
making his boy life seem real, and yet we know 
nothing about him until he asserts himself in 
the full strength of manhood, by startling the 



14 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

world with both poetry and prose so full and 
enjoyable that all to whom the privilege of 
education had been granted were amazed and 
delighted. We can picture for him no school 
life, no college life, and yet he was an accom- 
plished man at early maturity. 

Surnames were then as often used to desig- 
nate a trade or a profession as for the identity 
of any particular family, and so even his name 
of Chaucer might have meant a shoemaker. 
The poet's grandfather, Richard le Chaucer, 
may or may not have plied that trade. 

Richard was a resident of London, and both 
he and his son John were vintners or wine-mer- 
chants, and so you can infer that Geoffrey was 
not brought up to believe in temperance socie- 
ties : and yet in one of his tales he makes a 
protest against drunkenness, so we are glad to 
think that it had done him but little harm. His 
father's name was John and his mother's Agnes, 
and they owned a house in London. I say 
they owned, but as I do not know what a wife's 
right of dowry was in those days it probably 
belonged to John. If it had before marriage 
been the property of Agnes, after marriage 
John doubtless called it his. I draw your at- 
tention to these little matters, because you are 
my listeners and not the readers of history, and 
because we are constantly rejoicing in the priv- 
ilege of living now instead of then. This home 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 15 

was not far from a great bridge over which 
travellers went on their way to the southern 
road, and some believe that through early ob- 
servation of the travel that continually passed 
he conceived the plan for his Canterbury Tales 
when he commenced his career as a writer. 

Geoffrey Chaucer's father must have had 
enough means or influence to attract royal 
notice, for he is mentioned in connection with 
the royal household, and must have been 
charged with some responsibiiity, because he 
was one of the king's retinue or followers when 
Edward theThird and his Queen, Philippa, made 
an important journey into Flanders and Ger- 
many ; and you can see that if young Geoffrey's 
parents were prosperous enough to hold a 
court position, it is easy to infer that they were 
both eager to give their son all possible advan- 
tage, and they were certainly in a position to 
do so. He may thus have had opportunities to 
study without attending the universities then 
established, in which case there could be no 
record of how his mind had become properly 
trained. 

Supposing him to have been born in 1330, 
we find that in 1357 he is recorded as attached 
to the household of Prince Lionel, King Ed- 
ward's third son, and his wife, the Princess 
Elizabeth of Ulster ; and it was doubtless as a 
page in that princess's expedition into France 



i6 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

that he must have been taken a prisoner, as 
there is a document of ransom dated in 1360, 
wherein King Edward Third contributes six- 
teen pounds towards Chaucer's release. 

Seven years after, the records show that he 
had left the service of his earliest friends, or, 
as is more proper to say, his patrons, the 
Princess Elizabeth being dead, and her hus- 
band, now the Duke of Clarence, appointed 
Governor of Ireland ; but he was evidently re- 
tained by King Edward himself as valet of the 
king's chamber, and his salary is stated as 
twenty marks a year for life. 

Thus closely attendant upon royalty, he 
must have acquired courtesy of manner : for, no 
matter how rough the sovereign may be, and 
doubtless their ways would greatly shock us 
to-day, still the habit of continual respect of 
speech and conduct carries with it the charm 
of gentle reserve and strength if it be tem- 
pered by a pure heart and lofty thoughts, and 
sinks into despicable fawning and deceit where 
only selfish interest actuates the holder of such 
a position. 

There is much discussion about Chaucer's 
marriage, and so little certainty as to who his 
wife was, that but little need be said, and yet 
writers have evidently spent more time trying 
to find fault with her than in singing possible 
praises to the poor woman. Certain melan- 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 17 

choly lines in Chaucer's verses that might easily 
have been about some imaginary subject, or 
simply to make his lines sound well, lead them 
to think tjiat Chaucer was not happily married. 
It does not occur to them that men with their 
brains busy weaving fictitious characters might 
not prove very painstaking husbands, and as 
women then rarely had as much education 
as the men, his wife Philippa, as she is called, 
may not have had much interest in common 
with him. Then, too, we are told that she drew 
ten marks a year as lady in waiting to the 
queen, which shows that she did something 
toward the support of herself, and she may have 
had duties so arduous as to render domestic 
interests not always possible. Appointments 
like that were sometimes imperative, and 
alw^ays considered so desirable that all other 
claims were laid aside to meet the dubious and 
ofttimes dangerous honors that kings and 
queens thus bestowed. At any rate we will 
differ from the writers and think tenderly of 
her, until we have plenty of time in later years 
to read more about her, because it ^vill be 
nicer to imagine her proud of her brilliant 
husband, who came in time to be called " The 
Father of English Poetry," than that she was 
indifferent to the honors she must thus have 
shared. 

People rarely commence as authors by writ- 



1 8 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

ing- their own thoughts, just as girls and boys 
try sewing for dolls and whittling flat boats 
before they venture to follow the dictates of 
their own taste in dress, or shape a graceful 
boat of their own design. And so we find 
Chaucer translating from the French poets 
long and fanciful poems which he is said in 
places to have altered to suit his own fancy 
or the circumstances of his surroundings, that 
it might better please English readers, for in 
those days it was not wise to incur the dis- 
pleasure of kmgs and queens. 

Ever since the time of William the Con- 
queror, who came, as you know, from Nor- 
mandy and brought his French courtiers with 
him, French had been spoken at court and by 
all cultivated people. Poor prisoners had been 
tried and condemned in that tongue, often 
when they could not understand a word of the 
justice that was supposed to ensue, and it was 
only in 1363 that the English language had 
been restored to courts of justice and ordered 
for general use. Of course it came back much 
changed, having been softened by the addition 
of many French words, and we find it a 
medium for Chaucer's genius, so nearly like 
our own English of to-day that it is not at all 
hard to read. 

Just like the young swimmer who keeps 
near the shore, Chaucer tried to fit his mother 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 19 

tongue to other people's thoughts for a founda- 
tion, before he struck out into the deep waters 
of his own conceptions, and he often had to 
keep some French word or ending of a word 
that he was sure would be understood to make 
his lines complete. Talented and popular he 
certainly was, and, his genius early attracting 
the notice of King Edward Third, he soon be- 
came a great favorite at that brilliant court, 
where it is generally believed that he met his 
wife, who though she left scarcely any record 
of herself, was doubtless a younger sister of the 
wife of the Duke of Lancaster, generally known 
as John of Gaunt, and thus Chaucer obtained 
the support of a powerful family, the Lancas- 
trians, and his fortunes seem to have ebbed and 
flowed with theirs. Besides his courtly ac- 
complishments, his mind was greatly strength- 
ened by foreign travel, and as, on those travels, 
he was always charged with some commission 
for his government, he had the broadest op- 
portunities held out to him, by being thus 
thrown mto contact with the courtiers and 
distmguished people of the countries that he 
visited, and his writings soon began to show 
the influence that all such privileges gave him. 
Particularly did he profit by a commission of 
great state importance at Genoa, given him by 
Edward in 1372, for it was during that time 
that he became acquainted with Petrarch, a 



20 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

most learned and wonderful poet of his day, 
and also with Boccaccio, a writer of equally 
lasting fame. 

On his return, having stored his mind well 
with gems of richest thought, as well as having 
brought to a successful completion that task 
with which he was charged, he was continued 
in the favor of his king by being appointed 
Controller of the Customs of Wines and Wools, 
and the income, or revenue, as it is called, from 
that ofhce, together with a pension that was 
granted to him, must have given him a substan- 
tial support. /With the ofhce of Controller of 
Customs and Wools added to his court position 
he must have been daily thrown in contact 
with foreign and domestic manufacturers and 
merchants of all classes and perhaps many 
countries, from which he has drawn the varied 
pictures of life, from the highest to the lowest, 
and to that observation of the humors, opinions, 
and even the speech of such a variety of char- 
acters is due the great value of his Canterbury 
Tales, giving as they do descriptions of the 
usages and customs, of the social, business, cler- 
ical, and political life of his time^ And were it 
not for those very wonderful tales, we could 
never have known how much like humanity 
was in those far-off years, to our own weak 
selves of to-day. 

As I have said, Chaucer began by translat- 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 21 

ing- before he wrote entirely with original 
thought. There was a very popular poen^ 
called " Romance of the Rose," written by a 
French poet, and it became a great favorite, so 
that in every country where the French lan- 
guage was understood it was known and ad- 
mired, and many other poems were written in 
the same style. Heretofore, battles, crusades, 
tournaments, and all the exciting details of war 
had been the principal subjects written upon, 
and after that, fables, or allegories in which 
beasts and birds and even precious stones were 
given speech ; and satires, which are witty 
writings that expose follies and vices, and also 
humorous stories of a more kindly nature, were 
composed, after the fashion of ^sop's fables, 
with which you are familiar, only these objects 
were made the characters in quite long stories. 
This Frenchman took instead the Rose for a 
heroine, and grouping around that queen flower 
other blossoms and naming them after good 
and evil spirits, such as Mirth, Gladness, Com- 
pany, Love, Despair, Hatred, Villainy, Old Age 
and many others, he wrote a tale that was to 
contain twenty-two thousand verses, and when 
about one fifth was written the poet died, and 
who could wonder ! I am sure a coroner's in- 
quest to-day would have decided that he killed 
himself with verse ! Another Frenchman took 
the unfinished work and wrote not only the full 



22 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

quota but much more, turning a simple and 
kindly meant romance into a severe satire, par- 
ticularly against the Church, as well as many 
social customs. Chaucer was a fearless fellow 
to attack such a work as that to translate, and 
he must have done it to practice himself in the 
use of his own language. He had the good 
taste to cut down the first part very much and 
in the latter part he took the liberty of altering 
it, as well as cutting it still more, appljang his 
genius in such a manner as to produce a poem 
most acceptable to English readers, and open- 
ing for himself a ready acceptance of his own 
more gifted verses. In the translation he re- 
tained French names and places, and helped 
himself to a rhyme by a French word, and" 
sometimes put in an illustration of his own. 
He compares a bachelor to the lord's son at 
Windsor, and, as a hit at a recent Irish law that 
had been passed, he called the character 
" Wicked Tongue," an Irishman. He was very 
careful not to translate some of the criticisms 
passed upon kings and their counsellors, which 
shows how much tact he had, as well as loyalty 
to the interests of his noble patron, King 
Edward. 

John of Gaunt, whose wife Blanche we be- 
lieve to be a sister of Chaucer's wife, was 
nearly Chaucer's age, and they appear to have 
been very good friends. After ten years of 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 23 

married life the Duchess Blanche died, and, be- 
side many services at the grave, an elegy, 
which is a funeral song or poem, was composed 
by Chaucer, probably at the Duke's request, 
setting forth her virtues, and it was doubtless 
Chaucer's first entirely original composition. 
In those times poetry descriptive of persons 
was always disguised, that is, it was never made 
a direct address, and the way in which Chaucer 
sings the praises of this greatly mourned wife 
is this : 

He, the poet, represents himself as having 
fallen asleep while reading a classical poem 
upon the parting by death of two devoted 
lovers, and dreamed as follows : That while 
sleeping late one morning he was awakened by 
the singing of birds, the sound of a hunt with 
its neighing horses, barking of dogs and blow- 
ing of horns ; and he, too, rises and joins the 
sport, not as a participant, but as a witness to 
the hunt. After the deer is started he is at- 
tracted by a dog, who entices him, by the vari- 
ous devices of a faithful animal, to a lonely spot, 
where he finds a knight dressed all in black and 
bowed with grief. He succeeds by his sympa- 
thetic words in winning the confidence of this 
mourner, who freely tells him of the great 
beauty and charming character of the wife from 
whom death has parted him. And Chaucer 
puts into the mouth of the bereaved husband 



24 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

the most beautiful and lifelike picture of 
maidenhood and dignified womanhood known 
iu our language, which has been the model for 
many a poem of later aspirants to fame. 

In the opening lines of this poem Chaucer 
speaks of his own love for books — of his prefer- 
ence for their company to any pursuit of pleas- 
ure, and often in other writings does he confirm 
the taste he thus confesses. And just here we 
shall find the key to the success of all these men 
whom we are to think a great deal about in the 
coming days. 

Before I give you a description of " Canter- 
bury Tales " that will enable you to understand 
when you see them referred to, I want to tell 
you that Chaucer wrote other poems of equal 
merit. " The Romance of the Rose " I have 
related. " Troilus and Creseide " sings of love 
and its various fortunes. He calls it a " Littel 
Tragedie," and, although pathetic and simple, it 
is very tedious. 

" The Temple of Fame " displays a certain 
superficial knowledge of astronomy, which im- 
pression is removed by a treatise which he 
calls " On the Astrolabe," which is a little book 
written for the instruction of a young son 
named Lewis, who is supposed to have died 
in early life. The poet, in the " Temple of 
Fame," is taken by an eagle up into the signs 
of the Zodiac, and there he is able to look 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 25 

upon the universe. He describes many won- 
ders of natural philosophy, and many sides of 
human nature. He also sees the names of peo- 
ple of celebrity, the names of those exposed to 
the sun's rays as melting away into forgetful- 
ness, but those on the other side as made per- 
manent by perpetual ice. He is taken into the 
presence of the Goddess of Fame, and he de- 
scribes very cleverly how fickle and partial are 
her judgments. 

" The Flower and the Leaf " is a poem with 
an instructive moral, and, the story being a 
pretty idea, I will tell you about it. A noble 
and good woman from an arbor in her grounds 
sees in the distance a company of knights and 
ladies dancing upon a sward, or lawn as we 
call it. After the dance is ended they kneel 
down and do honor to the daisy, some to the 
flower and some to the leaf. It seems a 
strange ceremony to her and she seeks an 
explanation, learning that they who honor 
the flower are those who look after beauty and 
worldly pleasure, which, like the flower, will 
fade in a day or at the slightest blast of cold, 
and they who honor the leaf, which comes from 
the root, and which neither storms nor blasts 
can destroy, are those who rely upon virtue 
and true merit without any regard to worldly 
rewards. 

" Canterbury Tales " were doubtless sug- 



26 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

gested to Chaucer by the writings of an Italian 
named Boccaccio, who bound together a series 
of stories by an historical frame-work that had 
no special bearing upon the tales, but they held 
the reader's interest by the charming manner 
in which they were told. " Canterbury Tales " 
are quite different, for they have a decided plot 
or object running all through them, which is a 
pleasant story or fancy in itself, and this is what 
it is. 

Canterbury lies fifty-three miles southeast 
from London, and it was customary for all 
classes of people to make what was called a pil- 
grimage to the grand old cathedral at Canter- 
bury, within the walls of which the Archbishop 
Thomas a Becket was murdered. At an old 
inn called the Tabard, in South wark, then a vil- 
lage on the Thames River opposite London, 
there met twenty-nine pilgrims, all on their way 
to Canterbury. They could hardly all have 
been journeying for the same object, for travel- 
lers were called pilgrims in those days, although 
many went to pay their devotions in the cathe- 
dral. But this company must have had many 
different objects in view, judging from their 
various stations and occupations in life. And 
the host of the tavern, as the innkeeper was 
called, must have been a jolly man, popular 
with them all, for at his suggestion it was 
agreed that they should all go together, and 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 27 

that each should amuse the others with a tale, 
both going and returning, and that whoever 
told the best story should have a supper at the 
expense of the rest, and this far-seeing landlord 
should be the judge. I call him far-seeing be- 
cause he most cunningly secured, not only the 
return of the whole company by the road of 
the Tabard Inn, but also their patronage during 
the recital of all these stories ! 

Of course in such a company the very high- 
est social rank, such as kings and titled cour- 
tiers, and also the very lowest, because too 
poor to travel, would not be included, but we 
find all the grades between, and their stories 
are so cleverly woven to show the spirit and 
speech and interests of each traveller as he tells 
his story, that it is easily seen that in these nar- 
ratives we have a perfect record of the mass of 
the people in the fourteenth century, and 
Chaucer has thus left a contribution not only 
invaluable to poetic fancy and conception, but 
of still greater value to historians, who, delving 
only among records kept by state officials, find 
in dry facts but little upon which to frame their 
details. 

Chaucer still further shows his ability to keep 
his characters true to themselves, for it is very 
difficult for students of to-day to learn what his 
real attitude was toward many of the weighty 
questions of his time. For example, there was 



28 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

a monk in the party who tells his tale of self-in- 
dulgence and luxury, mingled with admonition, 
of the church's power, so deftly woven that the 
reader promptly decides that Chaucer must 
have been fully wedded to the tenets of Rome, 
else he could not so clearly define the charac- 
ter ; and parallel with the friar's story comes 
the Parson's Tale, one of humility, self-sacrifice, 
and gentleness that will stand as a true por- 
trayal of the humble and pious working minis- 
ter for all times. While reading this picture of 
a good and holy life, the reader with equal 
force pronounces Chaucer to have been in sym- 
pathy with Wycliffe. In the one a moderate 
but firm exposure of the follies and vices of 
the priesthood, and in the other a strong con- 
demnation of the destruction of church prop- 
erty — displays a complete identity with each 
character in turn. 

And here let me explain terms that are gen- 
erally understood to mean the same thing — 
Lollards, Dissenters, and Puritans — as applied 
to religious questions in England. Wyckliffe's 
followers were called, by the adherents to the 
Romish Church, Lollards, and at the time of 
his death half of England's population w^as said 
to be thus named. After the establishment of 
the Church of England in the reign of Henry 
the Eighth, those who were neither Roman 
Catholics nor followers of the English Church 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 29 

were called Dissenters, and the Puritans were 
one of many sects that were formed at that 
time. 

One of the Tales, called the Pardoner's Tale, 
is very frequently quoted or referred to, and a 
sketch of it will be wise to relate. In the times 
when England was under the rule of the pope, 
there were many requirements of the church 
that were either hard or irksome to comply 
with, and, to meet the emergencies of such cir- 
cumstances, persons could be excused by the 
purchase of what were called indulgences. 
Certain priests or officers of the church were 
empowered to give hearing to such petitions 
and decide on their merit, and I am forced by 
the evidence of many writers to say that to the 
holder of a full purse much was granted, while 
to him whose pennies were few the advice was, 
to wait for that forgiveness which, alas ! neither 
knew was free to all. These officers or priests 
were called pardoners, and, one being in that 
company of twenty-nine, he rel-ates a tale of de- 
feated craft, of which he doubtless had a large 
fund to draw from. Mr. Ward in his book on 
Chaucer tells the story very charmingly in his 
own words, and I would like to read it to you, 
but, as this is only a familiar talk, 1 will repeat 
to you what I can remember. 

Once there were a number of young men who 
doubtless had riches that they were fast using 



so ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

up in every kind of terrible dissipation, and 
they wandered from tavern to tavern seeking 
new ways to eat, drink, gamble, and dance away 
their time. And it chanced that one morning 
three of their company were sitting in a tavern 
drinking. While there, they heard sounds in- 
dicating that a corpse was being carried by for 
burial. By sounds I refer to the custom then 
held of carrying a bell and tolling it before the 
bier. They asked a boy who was the person 
to be buried. He replied that it was an old 
friend of theirs, and that he had been killed by 
a thief called Death, who after stabbing the 
man's heart went immediately away. The boy, 
after the fashion of boys in general, added the 
further information that Death was such a ter- 
rible person that his mother had taught him 
that he must expect to meet this fierce neighbor 
anywhere and at any time. And the tavern- 
keeper said that the boy must be right, for 
there had been many hundreds slain in the next 
town, and it must be there that he lived. 
These half-drunken fellows loudly asserted that 
they were not afraid of this creature called 
Death, and would forthwith seek to slay him, 
and they pledged themselves to be true to each 
other, and thus by their united strength they 
would be sure to bring this terrible murderer 
to his just deserts. So they started on the road 
to the next town, and on the way they met a 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 31 

poor, harmless old man, whom they jeeringly 
asked why he was so old and wrinkled ? He 
told them that, weary of life, he had often asked 
his mother, the Earth, to lay his tired bones to 
rest, but she had thus far refused him ; and he 
reproached them for their disrespect to old 
age. But, although he spoke gently, the rude 
fellows turned upon him, accused him of being 
an accomplice of Death, whom they were seek- 
ing, and told him that they would kill him on 
the spot if he did not tell them where they 
could find his comrade Death. He directed 
them to a path in some woods close by, and, 
describing a certain tree, assured them that 
their victim was waiting there^ and would not 
run away. In headlong haste they entered the 
path, and instead of some fierce-looking monster 
of humanity they found many bushels of gold, 
and, knowing it was not theirs, they immedi- 
ately plotted to take it away under cover of 
the night, and one of them was chosen to go 
into the town and buy food and drink to sustain 
them, while they waited for the darkness which 
they needed to cover their sin. 

As soon as the one chosen had gotten well 
started on his errand, the two who remained to 
watch the treasure fell into a confidential plan 
by which they could obtain the whole between 
them without having to share it with their 
other companion. They arranged that one 



32 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

should pretend to wrestle as if in sport with 
him, as soon as he should return, and the other 
should stab him while thus engaged, and the 
first was also to use his dagger so as to ensure 
his death. But the same evil spirit that lurked 
in their bosoms was filling the brain of their 
absent comrade with visions of the luxury of 
possessing the whole of those golden coins him- 
self, and he repaired to a druggist, complaining 
that he had many rats, and asked for poison to 
rid himself of them. Being supplied with 
poison that was warranted to work quickly, he 
went into a by-street and obtained three empty 
bottles. Into two he divided the deadly drug, 
and kept the third clean for his own use, and 
filled them all with wine. Hastening with his 
supplies to the retreat in the woods, he quickly 
met his fate, for, eager to ensure to themselves 
his share of the gold, his fellow-sinners attacked 
him most speedily. Sure now of the prize, they 
began by regaling themselves first with the 
tempting wine, and the one who commenced 
the feast chanced upon a poisoned bottle, drank 
from it and handed it to the other, who also 
quenched his thirst, without waiting to open a 
fresh bottle, and soon they both had no need of 
the treasure. Death was the name of the old 
man whom they had so disrespectfully treated, 
and to the misuse of gold that the}^ had at- 
tempted to seize with dishonest greed did they 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 33 

owe their own meeting with their would-be 
victim, for through the agency of the gold had 
Death defeated them. 

All through Chaucer's writings you will 
find strong moral truths. Some you can not in 
youth understand, and none of them would de- 
light you if you had to struggle with the quaint 
spelling and verse. " The Legend of Good 
Women " is a series of incidents showing noble 
faith through hardships of all kinds. There is 
in the Canterbury Tales a Man of Law's Tale ; 
a Shipman's Tale ; one of a Summoner; a 
Knight ; a Merchant ; a Clerk ; and enough 
others to make twenty-nine, although the task 
of all going both ways, which would make two 
for each, was never completed. All through 
them there is a cheerful, kindly spirit that 
shows a broad and intelligent charity toward 
all men. Two of the tales only are in prose, 
The Parson's Tale and the Tale of the Meli- 
beus, and in closing I shall quote from this last 
a few words upon the getting of riches that 
you can understand without effort and re- 
member with profit. 

UPON RICHES. 

" In getting of your riches, and in using of 
*em, ye shulen alway have three things in your 
heart, that is to say, our Lord God, conscience, 



34 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

and a good name. First, ye shulen have God 
in your heart, and for no riches ye shulen do 
nothing that may in any manner displease God 
that is your Creator and Maker ; for, after the 
word of Solomon, it is better to have a little 
good with love of God, than to have muckle 
good and lese the love of his Lord God ; and 
the prophet saith, that it is better to ben a good 
man and have little good and treasure, than to 
be holden a shrew and have great riches. And 
yet I say furthermore, that ye shulden always 
do your business to get your riches so that ye 
get 'em with a good conscience. And the 
apostle saith that there nis thing in this world 
of which we shulden have so great joy, as when 
our conscience beareth us good witness ; and 
the wise man saith : The substance of a man is 
full good when sin. is not in a man's conscience. 
Afterward, in getting of your riches and in 
using of 'em, ye must have great business and 
great diligence that your good name be alway 
kept and conserved ; for Solomon saith, that 
better it is and more it availeth a man to have 
a good name than for to have great riches ; and 
therefor he saith in another place. Do great dil- 
igence (saith he) in keeping of thy friends and 
of thy good name, for it shall longer abide with 
thee than any treasure, be it never so precious ; 
and certainly he should not be called a gentle- 
man that, after God and good conscience all 



GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 35 

things left, ne doth his diligence and business 
to keepen his good name ; and Cassiodore saith 
that it is a sign of a gentle heart when a man 
loveth and desireth to have a good name." 



EDMUND SPENSER. 

Between the death of Chaucer in 1400 and 
the birth of Edmund Spenser in 1553, there is a 
space of one hundred and fifty-three years, cov- 
ering the reigns of Henrys Fourth, Fifth, and 
Sixth, Edwards Fourth and Fifth, Richard 
Third, Henry Seventh, Henry Eighth, and Ed- 
ward Sixth, whose reign closed the very year 
of Spenser's asserted birth. Nine English sov- 
ereigns who did but little else than involve in 
continued warfare and discord, a people natu- 
rally fond of quiet and loyal almost to a fault. 
During the reign of Henry the Fourth the opin- 
ions of Wycliffe, who opposed. the pope and 
was, as you know, a reformer of religion, gained 
great headway, and King Henry took decided 
stand against him, denounced his views, called 
his followers heretics, and permitted them to 
be punished by a terrible cruelty copied from 
the Inquisition in Spain, that of burning at the 
stake. While such fierce factions raged there 
was no time for the cultivation of the mind. 
Henry the Fifth's time was also occupied in 
warfare, chiefly in France, for it was he who 

37 



38 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

gained the battle of Azincourt, or Agincourt, 
as the English call it. 

Henry the Sixth continued through his re- 
gents the wars with France, and during his 
reign the romantic incident of the French 
army being led by a peasant girl, named Joan 
of Arc, occurred. Also during his reign she 
was captured and burned at the stake in the 
city of Rouen ; while at home in England the 
Wars of the Roses were commenced. His 
kingdom had become divided by two factions — 
the Lancastrians, whose badge or family emblem 
was a red rose ; and the house of York, whose 
badge was a white rose. And these wars were 
terrible, because they were battles between a 
divided nation — just like our civil war, for they 
were not fighting a common enemy, but among 
themselves. With Edward the Fourth the Wars 
of the Roses still continued, and, like a national 
see-saw, first one was up and then the other. 
Edward the Fifth was but a child of thirteen 
when proclaimed king, and was left to the ten- 
der mercy of that wicked Duke of Gloucester 
who, while pretending to protect the gentle lit- 
tle child, caused him and his young brother to 
be smothered to death in the Tower of London, 
and was then himself proclaimed King Richard 
the Third. ' 



EDMUND SPENSER. 39 

King Henry the Seventh did not relieve the 
war-tossed people of what should have been 
fair, merry England, because, after the ending 
of the Wars of the Roses, one would think that 
kings and people had learned wisdom by sad 
experience. But two pretenders arose in his 
reign to keep public interest and safety con- 
stantly disturbed. The first was quickly dis- 
covered, but the second succeeded in declaring 
himself Richard, Duke of York, second son of 
Edward the Fourth. When he was met by 
the argument that he had been murdered with 
his brother in the Tower of London by his 
uncle King Richard Third, he told a plausible 
story of his escape, and he craftily joined in 
everything that was opposed to the reigning 
king, Henry the Seventh ; and so he, too, 
helped to keep such good things as books 
and intellectual advancement out of the hands 
of many a weary household. However, one 
bright star had risen almost unheeded upon 
the historical horizon of England, for Christo- 
pher Columbus, aided by the generosity of 
Queen Isabella of Spain, had discovered the 
New World ; and this king, Henry the Seventh, 
who had always made the obtaining of money 
the object of all his quarrels, wars, persecutions, 
and treacheries, for once used his love of gain 
to a good purpose, for he interested the mer- 
chants of London and Bristol, and induced 



40 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

them to fit out an English expedition for 
further discoveries in the New World, and it 
was intrusted to Sebastian Cabot, the son of the 
Venetian pilot who lived in the town of Bristol. 
His voyage was successful, and it proved 
profitable both to him and to King Henry. 

The discovery of Columbus, as we know, 
proved the fallacy of man}^ theories about the 
size of the world, and set scientific minds in all 
countries working ; but while they could write, 
study, and discuss in the privacy of their libra- 
ries and laboratories, or in the use of their 
crude instruments for astronomical and nautical 
purposes, yet times were still too turbulent to 
fit men for the quiet perusal of poetry or prose, 
written in a gentle spirit and full of refining 
thoughts. 

Indeed there seemed no hope for the encour- 
agement of such occupation, for in the new 
King, Henry the Eighth, England was to place 
on record a ruler whose life was always to be a 
blot upon her escutcheon. 

Defying every decency, he was divorced 
from, and caused to be executed, his wives, gave 
defiance to the rule of the Pope, while at the 
same time he burned and beheaded all who 
called themselves reformers. But the teaching 
of Wyckliffe could not be stamped out, and the 
more they burned and tortured, the more the 
truth spread. 



EDMUND SPENSER. 41 

There arose in the early part of this Henry's 
reign, at Wittemburg in Germany, a man 
named Martin Luther, who, after being a priest 
in good standing, found that there was a real 
New Testament that people were forbidden to 
read, and, having pondered much upon the 
opinions of Wyckliffe, he openly began to teach 
the people that they could read the Bible them- 
selves. He prepared a translation of it for 
them, and even posted pages of it in the public 
streets, and through the country roads, de- 
nouncing the Pope and the machinery by which 
his church was governed. By machinery I 
mean all the ways used in its management, and 
among other things he denounced as imposi- 
tions the indulgences that were sold by the 
pardoners whose office I explained in our talk 
about Chaucer. 

And the star that had arisen by the discovery 
of this, our now dear native land, was succeeded 
by this other star of greater magnitude, that 
twinkling a little through Wyckliffe grew 
brighter by the bravery and sincerity of Martin 
Luther, and it has continued to send its rays in 
diverging lines ever since, for it was the light 
of Protestantism fanning into a flame after it 
had been smouldering under tyranny, ignorance, 
and the rule of Rome. 

Edward the Sixth was a mere child, but 
guided by Cranmer promised some peace to 



42 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

poor England, had he not been persuaded to 
appoint in his will the succession of his sister 
Mary, instead of Elizabeth, to the throne. 

Edmund Spenser was born the year that 
King Edward the Sixth died, and during his 
infancy Queen Mary, Bloody Mary, as she was 
rightly named, bathed England in all the hor- 
rors of religious persecution, for she caused to 
be executed Lady Jane Grey and sentenced to 
be burned at the stake Hooper, Rogers, Ridley, 
Latimer, and Cranmer, besides men, women, 
and little children, because they did not believe 
in the supreme power of the Pope. 

With this hasty mention of the sovereigns 
ruling England between the death of Chaucer 
and the birth of Spenser, I want to notice in an 
equally short way those who did leave a mod- 
erate literary fame during this time. Their 
writings of course helped to make Spenser's 
greatness, because he had the benefit of their 
thoughts, representing, as they did, the growth 
of the nation in wisdom, even though they had 
not the gift of expression that points first to 
Chaucer, and, passing them with almost forget- 
fulness, presents Spenser as the next great Eng- 
lish writer. 

Gower was a friend of Chaucer's, and he tried 
with some success to establish a particular style 
of English, but he had not Chaucer's imagina- 
tion nor perception of character, and so he was 



EDMUND SPENSER. 43 

but little read. He died eight years after his 
friend. 

James First of Scotland, second son of Robert 
Third of Scotland, on the death of his elder 
brother was sent, when only ten years old, into 
France to be educated. But the vessel was 
taken by an English squadron, and Henry 
Fourth of England in all violation of right kept 
the boy at Windsor Castle. However, he took 
pains to educate him well, although he was a 
captive fifteen years. Prince James became 
attached to the daughter of the Duke of Som- 
erset, and afterwards married her, and in com- 
mendation of her he wrote a very long poem 
called the " King's Quair " (book), which, next 
to those of Chaucer, is considered the finest 
poem produced in England before EHzabeth's 
reign. 

William Caxton, who lived between 141 3 and 
1491, almost the century, seems to be the next 
link in the chain, which was bringing to the 
world of letters a way for the more general dis- 
tribution of thought ; for, being apprenticed to 
a merchant in London, and proving most trust- 
worthy, he was given a small sum of money 
with which to trade, and sent as an agent into 
Holland and Flanders, between which countries 
he spent some twenty years. Let me here say 
that England in its literary attainments was 
then fully a hundred years behind Italy, Greece, 



44 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

Holland, and Germany, though the hour for her 
elevation to the highest rank was near at hand. 

While Caxton was on the Continent the art 
of printing was everywhere spoken of, and, 
with great expense, effort, and perseverance, he 
not only learned to print and mastered every 
particular respecting it, but he translated from 
French into English selections from the '' His- 
tories of Troy." He had these published in 
one volume at Cologne, and sent it to England 
as the first book that had ever been printed in 
the English language. When he came home 
after a year or two he wrote a book on the 
" Game of Chess," and here you can see how 
old that game is, for it must have been already 
well established to warrant such a work ; and 
that was the first book printed in England. He 
continued in a quiet, modest way to print books, 
many of his own translation, some sixty in all ; 
among others, " Chronicles of England," which 
are very deceiving, as there is as much fiction 
as fact in them. 

Sir Thomas More, poor man, for he had to 
suffer for his sincerity, after Cardinal Wolsey 
was disgraced w^as made Lord Chancellor. 
But he was true to his convictions, and he 
could not give support to all that his wicked 
king wanted, and so he lost his head. He was 
educated in all the learning of his time, and was 
in correspondence with the learned men of 



EDMUND SPENSER. 45 

Europe. The great Erasmus went to England 
on purpose to enjoy his conversation, and here 
comes a question for you to consider. What 
language was used between people of different 
countries, by which ihese learned men could 
exchange their thoughts and readily read and 
profit by correspondence and the study of each 
other's works? Latin was doubtless the gen- 
eral medium, and next the French language. 
Hence the custom of educating all destined to 
high places, in Greek, Latin, and French ; and 
now you live in the proud day when our tongue 
must be studied by foreigners with equal need. 
Sir Thomas More wrote " Utopia," which de- 
scribed an island of that name governed with 
all things as nearly perfect as it is possible to 
be. When we speak of most delightful sur- 
roundings we say that they are *' Utopian." 
It is a witty and pleasing work, full of fancy, 
and yet has much that to-day has been ac- 
knowledged to be practical, although quite be- 
yond the conception of those times. 

William Tyndale, to whom all Protestants 
owe so much, also came between Chaucer and 
Spenser. The old Latin or Vulgate Bible was 
printed on the Continent in 1462, and the New 
Testament in Greek in 15 18. You can see how 
quickly advantage was taken of the newly ac- 
quired art of printing. And it created so great 
a fright among the monks that they warned 



46 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

people against this harmful literature, and some 
said among themselves, " We must root out 
printing, or printing will root out us." In de- 
fiance of all this, and at the risk of his life, Wil- 
liam Tyndale in the reign of Henry Eighth 
commenced to translate the Scriptures from the 
original Hebrew and Greek into English. 
And, although many learned men have revised 
the sacred writings, yet it is surprising how lit- 
tle difference there has really been made. He 
was chaplain in the family of a wealthy knight 
who entertained the clergy liberally. A popish 
divine could not meet Tyndale's arguments in 
favor of an English translation of the Bible, and 
perceiving his defeat angrily exclaimed, " We 
had better be without God's law than the 
Pope's," to which Tyndale boldly replied, *' I 
defy the Pope and all his laws, and, if God gives 
me life, before many years the plough-boys in 
England shall know more of the Scriptures than 
you do." To better accomplish his aims Tyn- 
dale went to Antwerp and industriously trans- 
lated and had printed the Scriptures in the 
English language, and so rapidly were they 
sold, mostly in England, that several editions 
of five thousand each were disposed of. That 
was a great many, because printing then was 
hand-work, not only in the setting of the type, 
but in the actual printing of the book, and the 
process was necessarily very slow. Tyndale 



EDMUND SPENSER. 47 

was finally betrayed into the hands of Henry 
the Eighth. He was imprisoned and sentenced 
to be burned at the stake. While awaiting the 
time to suffer the dreadful sentence, instead of 
bewailing his fate he prepared a version of the 
Testament adapted to the use of the peasantry, 
so that the plough-boys did have one for them- 
selves, and his last prayer was that " God should 
open the King of England's eyes." 

Henry very soon after ordered the Bible 
placed in every church for the people to read, 
and, although done in a spirit of wicked defi- 
ance because the Pope would not further some 
of his heartless acts, still such great good came 
of it that we are apt to forget the source and 
spirit of the privilege. 

Hugh Latimer was the only son of a yeoman, 
or farmer as we say, and, promising much as a 
lad, his father decided to send him to college. 
He was a strict papist until thirt\^ years old, 
when he began to discuss and examine the 
claims of the Reformers, and became so fully 
convinced of their right that he joined with 
Cranmer in the spreading of their doctrines. 
But he fell a victim to Queen Mary, and with 
Ridley was burned at the stake. Just before 
the fire was lighted he called cheerfully to Rid- 
ley, '' Be of good cheer, Master Ridle}^ and play 
the man, for we shall this day kindle such a 
torch in England as I trust in God shall never 



48 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

be extinguished." His writing was so free 
from the old style that it can be read with ease 
and pleasure, and as a picture of his childhood 
I will read you what he said about his father. 

*^ My father was a yeoman and had no lands 
of his own, only he had a farm of £'^ or £4. by 
year at the uttermost, and hereupon he tilled 
so much as kept half a dozen men. He had 
walk for an hundred sheep, and my mother 
milked thirty kine. He was able and did find 
the king a harness, with himself and his horse, 
while he came to the place that he should re- 
ceive the king's wages. I can remember that I 
buckled his harness when he went to Black- 
heath field. He kept me to school, or else I 
had not been able to have preached before the 
king's majesty now. He married my sisters 
with ^5 or twenty nobles apiece, so that he 
brought them up in godliness and fear of God. 
He kept hospitality for his poor neighbors. 
And some alms he gave to the poor, and all 
this did he of the said farm. ... In my time 
my poor father was so diligent to teach me to 
shoot, as to learn me any other thingVand so I 
think other men did their children ; he 'taught 
me how to draw, how to lay my body in^^y 
bow, and not to draw with strength of arms Vs 
divers other nations do, but with strength^f 
the body. I had my bows taught me accord- 
ing to my age and strength ; as I increased in 



EDMUND SPENSER. 49 

them, so my bows were made bigger and big- 
ger, for one shall never shoot well, except they 
be brought up in it. It is a worthy game, a 
wholesome kind of exercise, and much com- 
mended in physic." 

This we have quoted, and all the words but 
one are spelled as we do to-day, although that 
was full}^ three hundred and fifty years ago, 
and we find no difference except a quaintness 
of expression. 

Writers of plays too were not wanting. The 
earliest plays known were called Miracle Plays, 
which were founded upon Scriptural narrative. 
Then came Moral plays, which portrayed the 
triumph either of virtue or sin ; and later Inter- 
ludes, which began to amuse the people by rep- 
resenting their own lives from any chosen point, 
much as to-day. 

John Heywood wrote most successfully in 
that manner, and was a favorite both with 
Henry Eighth and his daughter Mary, and that 
was strange too, for in his comedies he exposed 
very plainly the vicious lives of the ecclesias- 
tics. 

Another play-writer was John Still, whose 
comedy of '' Gammer Gurton's Needle " is still 
quoted. It is said to be full of humor but very 
ro«gh reading for our days, although all the 
situations are comical in the extreme. 

And now we have reached Roger Ascham, 



50 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

an eminent Greek scholar, and appointed to be 
the instructor of the learned languages to the 
princess who afterwards became Queen Eliza- 
beth. After two years devoted to her, he went 
abroad, coming back in three years to fill the 
office of Latin secr.etary to Edward Sixth, and 
at that king's death he retired to the university, 
where he remained until Queen Elizabeth em- 
ployed him to read with her two hours a day, 
so that he was connected with her court until 
his death. 

These few bright people whom I have told 
you about had left their influence upon the 
world, so that when little Edmund Spenser 
began to learn his letters there were much 
greater advantages for him than there had been 
for Chaucer ; and we are going to see now what 
another bright boy saw and thought about, and 
how he helped the world for you and me. 

When Edmund learned the alphabet the 
hearts of his parents had been lightened, and 
their faces more readily responded to the smiles 
of their little son, for Mary, bloody Mary, with 
her cruelties to answer for, had died, and Eliza- 
beth came with her Protestant sympathies, like 
a healing balm to soften the terrors of the past 
five years. 

Henry the Eighth and Mary had both been 
extravagantly fond of dress, and the fashions 
dictated gay and elegant silks, satins, velvets. 



EDMUND SPENSER. $1 

and gold and silver embroidered cloths ; as 
well as jewelled girdles, hat-bands, and head- 
dresses of every conceivable color, not only for 
women, but for men. And this gay dress was 
not confined to the nobility, for we find the 
clergy of the day preaching against the wantOQ 
extravagance of the working people, who had 
no wealth to meet such expenses ; and so far 
was it carried that penalties were finally im- 
posed upon all tradesmen who made certain 
garments for people below a stated rank, and 
also fines and the forfeiture of the garment for 
the hapless youth who ventured to thus deck 
his person in imitation of his betters. 

Little boys must have worn silk doublets, 
gayly trimmed hose, embroidered shoes which 
we are told sometimes were upon cork soles 
that raised the dainty foot covering two inches 
from the ground. Gay Httle velvet capes lined 
with bright colors and small velvet caps banded 
with gold embroidery, sometimes with jewels. 
And with all these fine things where came the 
fine times? Tennis they doubtless had, as it is 
a very old game, although it may have been 
laid aside. Archery we know they practised, 
and riding on horseback ; but marbles — did 
they know that delight, and how could they 
have a grand frolic and tramp in the the woods 
with so many fine clothes? 

Thankful for the little blue and gray suits of 



52 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

to-day, let us decide whether Edmund Spenser 
was in a position to have his boy life thus ham- 
pered by the restraints of court dress. 

There is literally nothing known of Spenser's 
parentage except that his father's name was 
Sir John Spenser, and that the family claimed 
identity with the Spencers of Althorpe, not- 
withstanding the difference in the spelling of 
the name. 

Edmund Spenser had three sisters who mar- 
ried men of high degree — Elizabeth, whose 
husband w^as Sir George Carey ; Anne first 
was Lady Compton, and she later became the 
wife of Thomas Sackville, who was a son of the 
poet, the Earl of Dorset ; Alice also married 
twice, her first husband being Lord Strange, 
Earl of Derby, and the second was Thomas 
Egerton, Lord Baron, and then Viscount 
Brackley. Spenser speaks in a poem written 
later of these as 

The sisters three, 
The honor of the noble family 
Of which I meanest boast myself to be. 

Notwithstanding the position and evident 
luxury that surrounded these sisters, the first 
mention we have of Edmund Spenser, their 
young brother, was as a charity pupil at a 
school known as the Merchant Taylor's School 
of London. 

A man of wealth named Robert Nowell gave, 



EDMUND SPENSER. 53 

after the fashion of those and later times, sums 
of money to certain poor scholars, and when he 
died many people of high and low degree at- 
tended his funeral, and among the charges for 
that ceremony is one of '' two yards of cloth to 
make a gown for Edmund Spenser, sizer and 
head boy at Merchant Ta34or's School." 

We immediately dismiss all thoughts of him 
as daintily decked in velvet and jewels and em- 
broidered shoes, and think of him with perhaps 
woollen hose, not woven but made from cloth, 
a simple doublet, rough and none too warm, 
food that proved wholesome, and doubtless 
plenty of exercise, first as a fag or attendant 
upon some higher-form boy, and later because 
youth and health prompted it, just as it does 
now. 

Robert Nowell died in February, 1568, and 
Spenser went to Cambridge the following May, 
being fifteen years old. He was entered as a 
serving-clerk at Pembroke Hall, and from time 
to time items of small but frequent needs are 
found as given by the Nowelis and Bishop 
Grindal to Edmund Spenser. 

He entered college just when times were 
proving very far from smooth for Queen Eliza- 
beth, although these troubles had not thus far 
proved an impediment to the quiet pursuit of 
every industry and intellectual growth. 

About this time there came a Flemish doctor 



54 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

from Antwerp, who had fled to England on ac- 
count of his views. He started a Miscellany, 
which was fashionable in those days, a collec- 
tion of poetry and prose something like our 
magazines. And in that Miscellany appeared 
early efforts of Spenser, mostly translations, 
and doubtless this Dutchman employed Spen- 
ser to do the work. Some were translations of 
sonnets from Petrarch, and were well done. 
Evidently to know the Italian language was 
common among students, or else a mere school- 
boy could hardly have used it with sufficient 
ease. 

Then, too, you must realize how much more 
it was for young Spenser to write or translate 
beautiful sonnets than it would be for the 
young student of to-day, for you have the ex- 
amples of gifted men of many generations, in- 
cluding this very lad, while he had nothing but 
the quaintness of Chaucer to fall back upon. 
So he entered Cambridge with tested ability 
as a clever rhymer. But little being known of 
his career as a student, we will have to infer 
that he devoted more time than was well to 
poetical effusions, for some of his Latin compo- 
sitions while in college are said to be very 
clumsy and inelegant ; although he later proved 
himself accomplished in the classics. 

Two fellow-students have as his friends out- 
lived their generation ; otherwise I am afraid 



EDMUND SPENSER. 55 

they would soon have been forgotten. One 
was Gabriel Harvey and the other Edward 
Kirke. Edward Kirke was his closest friend, 
and to him Spenser confided all his literary in- 
terests, but Gabriel Harvey for a long time ex- 
erted a powerful influence over him. 

Harvey was an authority in classical and 
Italian literature, but he was so proud of that 
accomplishment that he scorned the possibilities 
of his own tongue ; and he was also quite a 
leader in an effort to make our rugged English 
yield to the rules of classical metres. Harvey's 
writings were full of his vanity, and, were it not 
for the devotion he evidenced for Spenser, we 
would give him but little heed. 

Spenser took his degree of Master in 1576, 
being now twenty-three years old, so his course 
there must have covered eight years instead of 
the standard four of to-day, and it accounts, 
too, for the early age of his admittance, — a 
point in favor of our boys now, as we are very 
properly jealous for our own times. 

Besides Harvey and Kirke, Spenser knew 
later Sir Philip Sidney, and was also more or 
less influenced by him, although that led him 
rather in the line of social indulgences than 
literary work. Still it kept in check his lean- 
ing toward an independent style that employed 
only the richness of his own language and a 
method of his own creating. 



$6 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

For a short time after leaving Cambridge, 
Spenser retired to the north of England, where 
he must have been actively engaged in the use 
of his pen, for there he made famous the name 
of Rosalind, the " Widow's Daughter of the 
Glen." Rosalind, who was a real character, 
refused his offered love and married another. 
He was keenly disappointed, but would allow 
no one to reproach her. Three years later he 
emerged from obscurity, and with Sidney and 
Harvey did much writing that was still after 
the strained fashion that his friends urged upon 
him the necessity of cultivating. 

When Spenser appeared in London he was 
well known as a poet of pre-eminent ability ; 
and, in spite of friends whose learning he re- 
spected, he had evidently begun to realize his 
powers or gifts, and to have decided to follow 
the dictates of his own imagination rather than 
the bent of the times, or the paths of his com- 
panions in letters. I wish you were old enough 
to understand Dean Church's account of the 
changes that had come to England during the 
first twenty years of Elizabeth's reign, but as 
my endeavor is to simplify the whole subject 
for you my hardest task will be here. 

Wars between the upholders of different re- 
ligious views, as well as the battles between 
kings and princes, had instituted a reign of 
terror that gradually had subsided into a war 



EDMUND SPENSER. 57 

of pens and voices, so that England had been 
living in comparative freedom from danger to 
her firesides. Consequently the people had 
been growing rich in comfort and the encour- 
agement of art and manufactures. And yet the 
veil of such recent grief and torture^ was so 
thinly drawn that their hearts could not fail to 
be fired by the sadness of the past and the 
promise of the future. Hence there was every- 
thing to tempt the spirit of romance and its 
medium of record, poetry, and above all others 
to be tempted was the obscure little boy of the 
Merchant Taylor's School — now a thoughtful 
man whose heart was alive to the tenderest 
and grandest impressions of his time. 

Spenser wrote a series of poems that he 
named the '' Shepherd's Calendar." There 
were twelve in all, representing the months of 
the year, and they were in no way connected, 
treating of subjects both grave and gay, and as 
a key to many customs and opinions they are 
of great value. His language is rich and his 
descriptions vivid, but so quaint is the style 
that it is not easily read. 

Then, too, he was still held in check by the 
wishes of his friends to adhere to Italian meth- 
ods, so we will simply remember what the 
''Shepherd's Calendar " was, and turn to that 
outburst of his genius, '' The Faerie Queen," by 
which he must always be known, and which 



58 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

ranks next in progressive wonder to Chaucer's 
" Canterbury Tales." 

The autumn of 1579 found Spenser expect- 
ing to go with the Earl of Leicester into 
France, for, having no fortune of his own, he 
shared the fate of all scholars of his period in 
an inability to support himself by literary work. 
These men could only hope for preferment to 
lucrative offices under the government or in 
the employ of wealthy companies transacting 
domestic or foreign business. 

If the patronage of Leicester had been se- 
cured, Spenser might have been led into en- 
tirely different channels of thought, for he 
would have thus been surrounded by the in- 
trigues and dissipations of the brilliant and yet 
unprincipled society of the court, and then per- 
haps we might never have known the charm of 
the " Faerie Queen." 

Ireland was at this time the most trouble- 
some of all the queen's dominions. It was, in 
fact, in open rebellion, and there had also set- 
tled on the frontier a band of Spanish and 
Italian marauders who had strongly fortified 
themselves, and the natives were in constant 
feud with them. To quell all this and more 
that you can in no way understand, Queen 
Elizabeth sent Arthur, Lord Grey of Wilton. 
Lord Grey was Puritan in his religious beliefs ; 
a good and noble man, with a great deal of 



EDMUND SPENSER. 59 

courage, but he had very stern views of right 
and wrong, and believed in force where imme- 
diate submission was not found. 

He was represented to be the right man for 
Ireland, and he chose Edmund Spenser for his 
secretary to accompany him on a task from 
which he at first shrank ; and so the gentle, sen- 
sitive poet, and the strong man of arms went 
forth together to meet and try to mould a 
turbulent and vacillating people. Three ele- 
ments had to be contended with. First, a ha- 
tred of each other among the Irish — furious at- 
tacks upon the followers of the two forms of 
religion, that of Rome and of Protestantism ; 
and common to them all a most intense hatred 
of their masters, the English. No wonder, 
then, that Lord Grey's rule was one of stern 
and unrelenting severity, by which hundreds 
and thoUvSands were executed, or killed in the 
small internal warfare that was incessantly 
kept up. So true to his beliefs was Lord Grey 
that Spenser, knowing him in the privacy of 
life, made a most noble defence of him, for Lord 
Grey, while carrying out to the letter his in- 
structions from Queen Elizabeth, was so misrep- 
resented at home that he was finally recalled 
and severely censured for the methods he had 
employed. 

Owing to Lord Grey's unpopular administra- 
tion of Ireland's affairs, and Spenser's faithful 



6o ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

friendship, is doubtless due the meagre ap- 
pointments under government that Spenser, 
notwithstanding his acknowledged power in 
the literary world, had thus far received ; as 
he held only humble clerkships for some time 
after. 

An attempt was made to settle one important 
part of Ireland, called Munster, by giving its 
fine but deserted places to Englishmen who 
were to be called undertakers ; by which we 
are to understand that they were to undertake 
to settle and cultivate all this section, drawing 
around them only English society and English 
tenants or peasantry to till the soil. But the 
Irish made such determined opposition to this 
that no clear titles to the estates could be ob- 
tained. 

After holding various places and becoming 
known to Walter Raleigh, Spenser at last ap- 
pears as an undertaker, having a grant of three 
thousand acres on which was a manor and cas- 
tle of Kilcolman. It w^as first assigned to some 
one else, but finally was given to him, and this 
became his future home. He describes it as 
being surrounded by woods, having fine views, 
and a stream of water that in a poem he calls 
the Mulla. 

Spenser evidently had the plan formed to 
write the " Faerie Queen " very early in life, 
for parts of it are found long before he per- 



EDMUND SPENSER. 6l 

fected it, and reference was often made to the 
place in letters to his friends Edward Kirke 
and Harvey ; but not until he was settled in 
this home did he really work out what must 
have been the dream of his life. 

The first account we have of the general 
bearing of the poem is found in the report by 
Spenser's predecessor in the service of the 
undertakers for Munster. 

It describes a meeting of the council at a 
cottage near Dublin, and gives the names of 
eight very prominent men connected with the 
government's various departments, such as the 
army, navy, and diplomatic service. The 
writer says he addressed the company, and 
stated that he envied the Italians their litera- 
ture, because they had books in their mother 
tongue, that not only described the thoughts 
of ancient philosophers, but treated of all the 
current progress of the world, and regretted 
that the youths of England had to wait until 
they had learned the foreign languages before 
their characters could be influenced by such 
works as moral and political philosophy. He 
said to his hearers that there was one in their 
midst well qualified to make them a familiar 
address upon those subjects, and he trusted that 
it would meet the pleasure of his guests to 
couple their request with his for the evening's 
profitable diversion. 



62 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

He then turned to Edmund Spenser and most 
charmingly presented his desire in the name of 
the others. 

Spenser replied that it was hard for him to 
refuse so flattering a request, but he referred 
to a work upon which he was then engaged, 
and explained that it was to be in heroical 
verse and to be called the " Faerie Queen," in 
which he hoped to satisfactorily represent all 
the virtues of life in the character of knight- 
hood, and the vices they were to endeavor to 
overcome ; in fact it was to contain the ethical 
part of moral philosophy. 

By heroical verse you must understand poe- 
try that describes the brave or noble actions of 
men, and it is in the English language gener- 
ally written in iambic verse of ten syllables ; 
and the ethical part of moral philosophy is 
moral truth applied to the actions of men. 

Just at this point in the history of English- 
men, a poet had to apologize for being one. 
He had to give a good excuse for the writing 
of rhyme ; a lesson must be taught, a moral 
brought out, and the object must be kept as 
fully in view as the text of a sermon ; and we 
must in trying to understand this noted work 
remember this fact. Also we must note that 
although it is an English poem by an English 
poet, yet it was written in Ireland, and the con- 
ditions of Ireland as compared with those of 



EDMUND SPENSER. 63 

England were such as to make it really like an 
English child born in a foreign land. 

If you stop to think what Spenser accompa- 
nied Lord Grey to Ireland for, you can under- 
stand that in Lord Grey, Spenser readily imag- 
ined a good knight who had salhed forth to do 
battle in a righteous cause, with all that was 
evil and dreadful in the world. It was quite 
easy for him to look back upon more peaceful 
England as a faerie land, and Queen Elizabeth, 
who represented his own faith, as a veritable 
Faerie Queen. He was far removed from 
scenes that might have disabused his mind of 
her perfections, for it took not only days but 
weeks for news to travel then. The wilder- 
nesses of Ireland, all deserted as she had be- 
come in some parts by internal warfare, easily 
answered to the woods through which knights 
bent upon fearful errands of prowess and dan- 
ger had to pass. Walter Raleigh's adventures 
with Irish chieftains in single combat, and his 
wonderful escapes, were counterparts of the 
Faerie Queen in real life. As Spenser chose to 
write about knight errantry, he certainly had 
a great deal of real life to draw his pictures 
from, for to quote from Dean Church the '' Fae- 
rie Queen " '' might be called the epic of English 
wars in Ireland under Elizabeth, quite as much 
as the epic of English virtue at the same 
period." 



64 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

Walter Raleigh was a friend of Spenser, and 
they often met in Spenser's home on the Irish 
estate, for Raleigh was an undertaker too, 
although he varied that enterprise with Jiis 
daring exploits upon the high seas, such as his 
voyage from Plymouth to Cadiz to punish the 
old Spanish king for sending his Armada to 
invade England in the interest of the Roman 
Church ; his voyages to North and South 
America in search of gold, and all that throws 
such a halo of renown around his name. The 
scenery in Ireland is very beautiful, and this 
bold, bright-eyed man and the dreamy poet 
held friendly talks beside the stream that Spen- 
ser fondly calls MuUa, and here were read to 
Raleigh the first three books of the '* Faerie 
Queen." 

Raleigh w^as a scholar, too, of the highest 
order, being a vigorous writer of prose, and a 
poet whom Spenser styles the " Summer Night- 
ingale." 

To such an appreciative reader Spenser con- 
fided this child of his imagination, and with 
generous warmth Raleigh urged Spenser to 
return with him to London, to be presented to 
the queen, and to gain permission to read the 
work in her presence. Spenser recorded all the 
thrilling joys of this successful trip in a poem 
called, " Colin Clout's Come Home Again." 
If we who have read about Queen Elizabeth's 



EDMUND SPENSER. 65 

homely features and red nose could have wit- 
nessed that scene it would have had much of 
its dignity shorn from it, for it must have been 
a comedy indeed for her to listen to her praises 
sung, not only as a being semi-divine and unri- 
valled in the art of making poetry, but also 
beautiful in face and person. She was most 
kind and believed every word of it, not perceiv- 
ing that this poet, too, had caught the spirit of 
the times, which exacted the most extravagant 
praise as a proof of loyalty ; and in his case it 
was, as I said, more sincere, because in his distant 
and grief-stricken home the separation had lent 
an enchantment to all her acts and surroundings. 

Elizabeth granted him a pension of fifty 
pounds a year, about which the Lord Treasurer 
made much ado. He was given permission to 
print his twelve books, but at that time only 
three were ready, and they were speedily 
printed. 

His old friend Harvey, laying aside his early 
objections, expressed his love and true friend- 
ship by writing a generous and simple poem 
about it, in which in his enthusiasm he forgot 
his own vanity, and thereby gained a place in 
futurity. 

With the queen, Spenser took what might be 
called in any time a high-handed liberty, for he 
dedicated the work to her in the following lan- 
guage : 



66 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

To 

The Most High, Mightie, and Magnificent 

Empress, 

Renowned for piety, virtue, and all gratious government, 

Elizabeth, 

By the Grace of God 

Queen of England, France, and Ireland and of Virginia, 

Defender of the Faith, etc., 

Her most humble servant 

Edmund Spenser 

Doth, in all humilitie, 

Dedicate, present, and consecrate 

These, his labours, 

To live with the Eternitie of her fame.* 

Two scholars who, beside Spenser, were fa- 
vored with Robert Nowell's bounty at the 
Merchant Taylor's School, were also beginning 
to attract by their writings — Hooker in elegant 
prose, and Andrews was leading the way for a 
better preaching than the English clergy had 
yet used. All England was alive with the 
spirit of strife for better things, and their hearts 
were ready to appreciate and take pride in the 
best efforts of their own people, a trait England 
has cultivated ever since, and in which we, 
who are mostly her own by lineage, have also 
proved most apt followers. A year after the 
first part of the " Faerie Queen " was issued, 
Ponsonby the publisher, finding Spenser so 
great a favorite, gathered together in one vol- 
ume some of Spenser's miscellaneous writings, 

* From Spenser — Morley's Edition, page loo. R. W. Church. 



EDMUND SPENSER. 67 

which he called '' Complaints, containing small 
Sundry Poems of the World's Vanity." They 
included sacred transcriptions, " The Seven 
Psalms," " The Sacrifice of a Sinner," and the 
address to Sidney's sister after Sidney's death, 
which was a '' poet's sorrow for a poet w^ho had 
been to him as an elder brother." 

But the most remarkable of these w^as called 
" Mother Hubbard's Tale of the Ape and the 
Fox," and it w^as a satire of the keenest kind. 
After Spenser's quiet, dreamy life in Ireland, 
and his sudden change to all the brilliancy of 
Elizabeth's court, it is no wonder that w^ith his 
perceptions alive to everything about him 
he should soon unveil the treacheries, jealous- 
ies, and fatal rivalries that the scramble for 
Church and State advancement generated. 

The court must have been very indifferent 
to literature, or the characters w^hich w^ere 
pointed out in this by no means flattering fable 
w^ould hardly have been safe to publish ; and it 
shows that Church and State w^ere then the 
only inflammable subjects. 

Spenser staid in England about a 3'ear and a 
half, and went back to his Irish home to finish 
the poem that had placed him on the pinnacle 
of literary fame, even if it had not added to his 
worldly possessions. 

He wooed an Irish maiden named Elizabeth, 
and took upon himself at thirty-eight years of 



6S ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

age domestic life, and the hope of a quiet, 
peaceful pursuit of his favorite themes. 

As it was the fashion to disguise all writing, 
even prose, of a sentimental character in the 
form of fables or allegories, Spenser did not 
attempt to depart from it in his work, although 
he used his own language with most reckless 
freedom, often cutting part of a word to make 
it rhyme, and expecting to be understood. In 
the same manner he added to and invented 
words to meet the same end. He also wrote 
without developing his plot as the narrative 
progressed, but evidently intended to have the 
whole explained in the last part or canto, as 
the divisions were called. He therefore, at the 
suggestion of Raleigh, addressed a letter as 
if in response to a question of Raleigh's and 
gave an outline of the true story that is hidden 
behind the curtain of allegorical figures of 
speech. 

He «ays that having determined to put his 
lesson in the form of a continuous allegory, he 
makes for his model of a knight King Arthur, 
because Arthur lives in England's heart as an 
example of great goodness, and because he is 
far beyond the reach of jealousy ; and draws 
the picture of him before he was a king. 

Spenser further explains that he meant the 
''Faerie Queen" ''for glory in .general inten- 
tion, but in particular " for Queen Elizabeth, 



EDMUND SPENSER, 69 

the faerie land to be her kingdom ; after which 
he gives the plot somewhat in this fashion. 

The Faerie Queen holds an annual feast of 
twelve days, and the events of those twelve 
days are to be undertaken by twelve knights 
(which outline puts us in mind of Chaucer). 

The first day a very clownish fellow presents 
himself and begs that he may be allowed to 
enter the ranks, which according to custom the 
queen cannot refuse, and he humbly seats 
himself on the floor in her presence. 

Soon after, a lady in mourning, riding on a 
white pony, enters, followed by a dwarf, who 
leads a warlike steed, bearing the armor of a 
knight, and the dwarf carries the spear in his 
hand. This lady, falling before the queen, be- 
seeches help, because she says that her parents 
are held captive by a dragon and cannot escape 
from the castle in which they are confined ; 
that they are an ancient king and queen, and 
she hopes that some knight will attempt their 
release. The clownish knight rises and offers 
his services, and it is very plain that the more 
handsome knights quite willingly reserve their 
deeds for gentler work. The lady tells the 
courageous knight that unless he can wear that 
armor (for it was the armor of a Christian 
man as described by St. Paul) he cannot suc- 
ceed. He being willing it is put upon him, 
and he immediately becomes the handsomest 



^o ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

knight in the whole assemblage. He mounts 
the charger, and thus the first line of the 
'' Faerie Queen " begins, " A gentle knight was 
pricking on the playne." 

This puts us in mind of the " Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress," although how far they are alike we can 
judge when we read John Bunyan. 

Wherein Spenser fails in this great workis- 
that he attempted too much. He keeps the 
plot well for the first two books, but to carry out 
his plan for twelve, in which he was to make as 
many knights do wondrous deeds, was an im- 
possible task without wearying the reader. 
There were so many characters and events to 
record that the plot is quite lost sight of in the 
six books that were written ; and so the plan is 
not well carried out, while the quaint old style 
instead of the language that had really come to 
be used obscures much of its beauty. 

After awhile Spenser throws aside the re- 
straint that the plot has put upon him in order 
that the fancies and pictures of his brain may 
Have full play, and then his writing seems like 
a rose that has burst the green confines of the 
bud, and opens more and more to display its 
beauty and shed its fragrance all around. 

He introduces what he pleases, and we see 
Queen EHzabeth under several names — Glori- 
ana first, then Britomart, Marcella, and Bel- 
phoebe. Duessa is Mary Queen of Scots, and 



EDMUND SPENSER. 71 

in the painting of the two characters his Puritan 
heart and his hatred of the Church of Rome 
are very apparent. He shows his love for his 
friends. Raleigh and Lord Grey in many ways, 
even in a sly bit of humor or friendly censure. 

Another drawback to our pleasure in reading 
this poem is the lack of discretion in what to 
say and what not to say, and also the habit of 
the times to exaggerate in descriptions and even 
statements ; and yet Spenser's brain was so full 
of good wishes, and he saw everywhere pic- 
tures of life- that he felt ought to be used as 
warnings or lessons of grave or happy import, 
that you would be quite bewildered if you tried 
to read it before your minds were greatly ma- 
tured. But everywhere in this great prairie of 
thought that he left he bravely upholds the 
right with his stately queens and knights, mak- 
ing them achieve what no human being could ; 
clothing triumphs, marriages, funerals, and 
every circumstance of life with the grandeur of 
his high purposes and lessons of good. In his 
portrayal of Lord Grey, who, though gentle by 
nature, was stern in time of trial, who faced 
duty with a heavy heart, Spenser gave in his 
allegory a touch of true history in the character 
of this grandly loyal but severe type of manli- 
ness who received for his reward only censure 
and misunderstanding. Raleigh is also pic- 
tured with the friendly pen of generous admira- 



72 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

tion, giving his grave mistakes a form of cari- 
cature that shielded rather than exposed too 
strongly the faults of an ambitious and impetu- 
ous nature. 

In 1595 Spenser took to London the second 
part, three more books of the " Faerie Queene," 
which, we learn from one of his sonnets, had 
been finished before his marriage, and in that 
sonnet he asks if, after his " race through faerie 
land " he may not rest and refresh himself with 
" Love's sweet praise ; " after which he prom- 
ised to '* strictly assail the reste." But, all un- 
conscious to himself, he had then finished his 
task. One thing must be deeply deplored in 
this poem, even though it was the custom of 
the time ; and that is the shameless and untruth- 
ful flattery of Queen Elizabeth. Englishmen 
should have received it with censure and de- 
rision, for not only Spenser as a man, but they as 
a nation, were a blunt and free-speaking people. 

Still, after all the imperfections of his plot 
and the error just spoken of, his knights and 
ladies have delighted all poets of his own day 
and since. 

Cowley discovered his own powers as a poet 
by reading Spenser. Dryden speaks of Milton 
as " Spenser's poetical son." Pope says he 
loved to read the " Faerie Queene " as well late 
in life as when only twelve years of age. 

Spenser found that English, when used in its 
own natural flow, was a musical language, and 



EDMUND SPENSER. 73 

he first discovered to the world the secret of it, 
using it most nobly, for he employed it to por- 
tray all virtues that spring from the root of 
true manliness. 

Dean Church says : " All Spencer's ' virtues ' 
spring from a root of manliness. Strength, sim- 
plicity of aim, elevation of spirit, courage, are 
presupposed as their necessary conditions ; " and 
he taught that they all gained their source of 
strength from the love of beauty in nature, in 
man, and in the service and care of good and 
true women. In praising and deifying Gloriana, 
Spenser painted a character that was just be- 
coming a part of real life, and he aimed also to 
define in the fullest sense an English gentleman. 
From his standpoint he could not ignore the 
importance of noble blood and family honors, 
yet he plainly conceived the idea that aside 
from these the man himself must have qualities 
of mind and heart of a certain standard to make 
the character complete. Keeping in view 
always these high aims, errors that at first seem 
to overshadow the possibility of reading this 
poem with great interest fade aw^ay, and a little 
patience in conquering the st3de and laying 
aside the thought of it as allegory, this sweet 
singer becomes a continual delight, and one 
whose name all students of English must cherish 
and honor. 

Spenser should have been happy in his mar- 
ried life. He was just at the height of his man- 



74 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

hood, was fond of the sweet quiet of country 
living, and although he must have missed the 
refinements of his English home-land, yet his 
nature was so in touch with the beauties of 
forest, glen, and stream that everywhere smiled 
on the otherwise stormy Ireland, that he could 
not fail of a certain content. But his estate was 
upon a very insecure part of the county of 
Munster, just on the border, where disturb- 
ance was rife. Thirteen years of apparent 
peace had only covered the embers of a well- 
kindled fire, and Spenser wrote two articles de- 
scriptive of the rebellions between 1595 and 
1 598. This evidence of Ireland's condition, from 
the graphic pen of one who was a witness to 
all, is said to be a vivid picture of what Sir 
Walter Raleigh called '' Ireland's common 
woe," — a picture of a noble realm that neither 
masters nor people knew what to do with ; a 
picture of the sufferings of a destitute and yet 
mischievous community, for w^hich every rem- 
edy had been tried and no cure found. With 
all this evidence before him, and while realizing 
that England was making terrible mistakes, 
spending money with no good results, yet he 
never once recognizes the cruelty, injustice, or 
greed that were everywhere heaped upon this 
wretched community "of British subjects. The 
time was nearly at hand when the same rebel- 
lions that took Spenser to Ireland with Lord 



EDMUND SPENSER. 75 

Grey should, in a later uprising, drive him out 
of it. Castle Kilcolman was sacked and burned, 
and Spenser and his wife and two children es- 
caped. In the terrible experience a newly-born 
babe was forgotten, and perished in the burning 
house. This last catastrophe broke Spenser's 
heart ; he reached London, sick and without 
money or food. He refused funds sent him by 
a friend, because he said he had no time to use 
them, and he died in January, 1598, only forty- 
five years of age. 

His two children were named Sylvanus and 
Peregrine. His wife is known to have married 
again, but except that the records show her to 
have quarrelled with one of her sons about his 
land, she has left nothing to connect her with 
her illustrious husband, or to show^ that she 
honored his name. 

Edmund Spenser was buried in Westminster 
Abbey, near to Chaucer, and the following is 
his epitaph : 

Here lyes (expecting the Second 

comminge of our Savior Christ 

Jesus) the body of Edmund Spenser, 

the Prince of Poets in his tyme, 

whose Divine Spirit needs noe 

other witnesse then the works 

which he left behind him. 

He was born in London in 

the year 1553 and 

Died in the year 

1598. 



76 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS, 

How he escaped from Ireland, what became 
of his manuscripts, whether he ever finished the 
" Faerie Queen," what he suffered, no one has 
ever told. We only know^ that the second of 
England's grandest poets perished miserably, 
and adds to England's list another victim to the 
wildness and vengeance of the Irish — an ill- 
treated and badly-governed people. 

And in turning with tenderness from the 
pathos of Spenser's life which was so full of 
noble aims, pure thoughts, and active sym- 
pathies, it is a pleasure to couple his name with 
the suggestive title of a Faerie Queene and the 
Faerie land that she governed. 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 

In the county of Kent, amid the luxury of 
England's woods, grassy meadows, and quietly 
flowing streams, there stood an ancient manor 
called Penhurst, which in the time of Henry 
the Eighth was given to Sir William Sidney 
for having served in the French wars and com- 
manded the right wing of England's army at 
Flodden. He belonged to a noble family, who 
since the time of Henry the Second had held 
prominent positions at court. His only son, 
Sir Henry Sidney, brought to this English 
homestead a lovely wife, Avhose name was Lady 
Mary Dudley, and she was the daughter of the 
Duke of Northumberland, whose family was 
still more ancient and noble than that of the 
Sidneys. She was also the sister of the unfor- 
tunate Guilford Dudley. 

Her husband, Sir Henry Sidney, prudently 
took no part in his father-in-law's schemes, but 
retired to his, country -seat, and thus saved the 
fortunes, and possibly the heads, of his family. 

So beautiful was Penhurst, that an author 
named Ben Jonson wrote a most glowing de- 

77 



78 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

scription of it in verse. He says it was not 
planned for envious show, with pillars, courts, 
and grand stairways ; but stands in rather som- 
bre greatness, amidst the beauties of nature, 
having waters to beguile the angler, a deer- 
park and game-preserves to lure the hunter, 
and a hospitality that offered all good things in 
their season. There were gardens with flow- 
ers and orchards laden with fruit — from the 
early cherry to autumn's richest harvest for 
winter cheer. 

In this beautiful home there was cradled on 
the 29th of November, 1554, an infant son, who 
was christened Philip, in honor of Queen 
Mary's husband, Philip of Spain. This child 
grew in beauty of character as well as form ; 
and everywhere, all through his life, he car- 
ried the magnetism of goodness, intelligence, 
and every manly virtue. Family records, 
friendly letters, public documents, and even 
poetic effusions all testify to the charm of this 
wonderful man ; and yet in obscurity, poverty, 
and struggling ambition a child born less than 
a year before was mounting the ladder of life, 
destined to meet him, and to be beloved, hon- 
ored, and to carry into futurity a name far 
greater, yet tenderly blended \vith the cher- 
ished and petted Philip Sidney; for Edmund 
Spenser's obscurity and struggles did not keep 
these two congenial spirits apart, even though 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 79 

they had not the happiness of a boyhood's 
friendship to look back upon. 

Jonson in his poem tells us of a tree that 
was planted in the park at Penhurst in honor 
of Sir Philip's birth, and the noble oak stood 
until 1768, receiving added fame from the pen 
of Edmund Waller. Should you ever visit 
Penhurst as it stands now, you can picture this 
lovely little English lad with flowing hair and 
soft laughing eyes, flitting hither and yon in the 
park, or pressing his bright, eager face against 
the windows ; and you can think of him, too, as 
dressed in gay doublet, silken hose, jewelled 
hat band and broidered shoes, gleaming like a 
veritable butterfly winging from flower to 
shrub — and that, too, in just the dress that we 
learned was worn in Spenser's time, and which 
we had regretfully to deny him in thought; 
because he was clothed by charity, and not as 
his fond mother doubtless sighed to mantle her 
darling. 

When Philip was but two years old, his 
father. Sir Henry Sidney, was sent to Ireland 
as governor of the royal revenues, and as a 
vice-treasurer. He repelled an invasion of the 
Scots in Ulster, and next year was made the 
Lord Justice of Ireland. 

Two years later he was appointed the Lord 
President of Wales. We think the simple title 
of President quite enough ; but in those days, 



8o ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

and even now everywhere but under the Stars 
and Stripes, titles counted for much. Even here, 
too, we see a gleam of satisfaction with no more 
than Alderman before one's name. However, 
all titles are meant to express deserved merit, 
and it rests with the wearer of the honor 
whether its record is blemished or not. 

Sir Henry Sidney held that office for the 
remainder of his life ; therefore he was obliged 
to reside at Ludlow Castle, and from there he 
decided to send Philip to a public school in 
Shrewsbury. So Phihp must have been nearly 
six years old when Penhurst became a happy 
dream of the past. 

At Shrewsbury there was a thriving wool 
trade, and much commerce between Wales and 
Ireland, so that it was a city of no little impor- 
tance ; and the burgesses, as the city gover- 
nors were called, had established an ably con- 
ducted school. Here Philip formed a lifelong 
friendship with a boy his own age, and also a 
distant relative. His name was Fulke Greville, 
and to his pen we owe the very minute descrip- 
tions of Philip Sidney's private character and 
opinions. Greville represents Sidney as grave 
beyond his years, and yet not bookish. There 
was no touch of recklessness about him, for he 
belonged to stirring and sobering times. He 
must have realized to what he was heir, that 
his mother had lost father and brother upon the 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 8i 

scaffold, and that even his father's position was 
by no means secure from the mandates of a 
fickle sovereign. 

There is a letter that he received from his 
father while at school, which the author whose 
life of Sidney we are reviewing feels the im- 
portance of giving in full ; and we, too, will read 
every word, that we may see how, ever the 
same in all times, the love of a true and noble- 
hearted father portrays itself; and the tender 
postscript of Lady Mary, his mother, is but a 
repetition of many, many letters that are lav- 
ished upon absent sons all over the world. 
And here it is : 

'' I have received two letters from you, one 
written in Latin, the other in French ; which I 
take in good part, and wish 3^ou to exercise 
that practice of learning often ; for that will 
stand you in most stead in that profession of life 
that you are born to live in. And since this is 
my first letter that ever I did write to you, I 
will not that it be all empty of some advices, 
which my natural care for you provoketh me 
to wish you to follow, as documents to you, in 
this your tender age. Let your first action be 
the lifting up of your mind to Almighty God 
by hearty prayer ; and feelingly digest the 
words you speak in prayer with continual 
meditation and thinking of Him to whom you 
pray, and of the matter for which you pray. 



82 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

And use this as an ordinary act, and at an ordi- 
nary hour, whereby the time itself shall put 
you in remembrance to do that which you are 
accustomed to do in that time. 

''Apply your study to such hours as your 
discreet master doth assign you, earnestly ; and 
the time I know he will so limit as shall be 
both sufficient for your learning and safe for 
your health. And mark the sense and the mat- 
ter of that you read, as well as the words. So 
shall you both enrich your tongue with words 
and your wit with matter ; and judgment will 
grovv^ as years groweth in you. Be humble and 
obedient to your master, for unless you frame 
yourself to obey others, yea, and feel in your- 
self what obedience is, you shall never be able 
to teach others how to obey you. Be courte- 
ous of gesture and affable to all men, with di- 
versity of reverence according to the dignity 
of the person ; there is nothing that winneth so 
much with so little cost. Use moderate diet so 
as after your meal you may find your wit 
fresher and not duller, and your body more 
lively and not more heavy. Seldom drink wine, 
and yet sometimes do, lest being enforced to 
drink upon the sudden, you should find your- 
self inflamed. 

" Use exercise of body, yet such as is without 
peril of your joints or bones ; it will increase 
your force and enlarge your breath. Delight 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 83 

to be cleanly, as well in all parts of your body 
as in your garments ; it shall make you grateful 
in each company and otherwise loathsome. 

" Give yourself to be merry, for you degener- 
ate from your father if you find not yourself 
most able in wit and bod}^ to do anything when 
you be most merry ; but let your mirth be ever 
void of all scurrility and biting words to any 
man, for a wound given by a word is often- 
times harder to be cured than that which is 
given with the sword. 

" Be you rather a hearer and bearer away of 
other men's talk than a beginner and procurer 
of speech ; otherwise you shall be counted to 
delight to hear yourself speak. Let never oath 
be heard to come out of your mouth nor word 
of ribaldry ; detest it in others ; so shall custom 
make to yourself a law against it in yourself. 

" Be modest in each assembly ; and rather be 
rebuked of light fellows for maidenlike shame- 
fastness than of your sad friends for pert bold- 
ness. Think upon every word that you will 
speak before you utter it, and remember how 
nature hath ramparted up, as it were, the tongue 
with teeth, lips, yea, and hair without the lips, 
all betokening reins or bridles for the loose use 
of that member. Above all things, tell no un- 
truth ; no, not in trifles : the custom of it is 
naughty. And let it not satisfy you that, for a 
time, the hearers take it for truth ; for after it 



84 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

will be known as it is, to your shame ; for there 
cannot be a greater reproach to a gentleman 
than to be counted a liar. Study and endeavor 
yourself to be virtuously occupied, so shall you 
make such a habit of well-doing in you that you 
shall not know how to do evil, though you 
would. 

" Remember, my son, the noble blood you are 
descended of, by your mother's side ; and think 
only by virtuous life and good action you may 
be an ornament to that illustrious family, and 
otherwise through vice and sloth you shall be 
counted labes generis, one of the greatest curses 
that can happen to man. 

'* Well, my little Philip, this is enough for me, 
and too much, I fear, for you. But if I shall 
find that this light meal of digestion nourisheth 
anything in the weak stomach of your capacity. 
I will, as I find the same grow stronger, feed it 
with tougher food. 

" Your loving father, so long as you live in 
the fear of God, '' H. Sidney." 

And here is the postscript that his mother 
added. Letters were treasures in those days, 
for both the conveying of them and the ma- 
terials used were matters of no small expense. 

'' Your noble and careful father hath taken 
pains (with his own hand) to give you in this 
his letter so wise, so learned, and most requisite 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 85 

precepts for you to follow with a diligent and 
humble, thankful mind, as I will not withdraw 
your eyes from beholding and reverent honor- 
ing of the same, no, not so long time as to read 
any letter from me ; and therefore at this time 
I will write no other letter than this ; and here- 
by I first bless you with my desire to God to 
plant in you His grace, and secondarily warn 
you to have always before the eyes of your 
mind those excellent counsels of my lord, your 
dear father, and that you fail not continually 
once in four or five days to read them over. 
And for a final leave-taking for this time, see 
that you show yourself a loving, obedient 
scholar to your good master, and that my lord 
and I may hear that you profit so in your learn- 
ing as thereby you may increase our loving 
care of you, and deserve at his hands the con- 
tinuance of his great joys, to have him often 
witness with his own hand the hope he hath in 
your well-doing. 

Farewell, my little Philip, and once again the 
Lord bless you. Your loving mother, 

" Mary Sidney." 

We have a right to infer, when we remember 
how full of noble aspirations Spenser was, and 
how he honored all things that were pure in 
purpose or act, that he, too, had a mother who, 
if she did not admonish her son in courtly 
words, had the same yearning love for him, and 



B6 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

must have done her duty as fully and as well as 
Lady Sidney, even if from a more humble sta- 
tion has remained only the echo of her counsel 
in the writings of her son. 

As we inferred from Spenser's course, boys 
went to college while still very young, and Sid- 
ney left Shrewsbury for Christchurch while 
but fourteen years old. He stayed for about 
three years, and left Oxford without taking a 
degree. There was nothing unusual in that, for 
college habits were freer then than now, yet that 
he was a diligent student there is ample proof. 

Some unknown writer sent to the "Arcadia" 
a short essay on Sidney's life and death, and 
quaintly says " that his tutors could not pour 
in so fast as he was ready to receive." 

Oxford was not held in so high repute as 
Cambridge, and thus Sidney may have stood 
more prominently alone as a student. 

Here he formed another warm friendship in 
Edmund Dyer, who made himself immortal by 
one single line of poetry : 

"My mind to me a kingdom is." 

Sidney lived in the tenderest relationship 
with these two, Greville and Dyer, and wrote 
himself of this bond that they " make but one 
mind, in bodies three." 

There is a letter still preserved that Sidney 
wrote from Oxford to his uncle, the Earl of 
Leicester. The earl was Queen Elizabeth's 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 87 

favorite, and it was believed at one time that 
he intended making Sidney his heir. He used 
his influence to bring about a marriage between 
Sidney and Anne Cecil, Lord Burleigh's daugh- 
ter, but it was not carried out. 

Sir Henry was a brave and honest man, but 
his administration in Ireland proved disastrous 
in many ways. Too honorable to abuse his 
trusts, the office cost him more than he re- 
ceived ; his health suffered, he was misrepre- 
sented at home by wily politicians, — who, we 
can see, have a long lineage, — and he returned 
to England financially and physically broken. 
Lady Mary Sidney had lost her beauty by the 
small-pox which she caught while nursing the 
queen, and she shrank from social life in con- 
sequence. Queen Elizabeth was served by 
many noble men and women, but she rarely 
acknowledged her indebtedness. She removed 
Sir Henry Sidney from his position in Ireland, 
and offered him a peerage. But he had no 
means to support it, and as Queen Elizabeth did 
not grant the needed tract of land, they were 
greatly distressed lest she be offended when 
they declined the honor. However, Elizabeth 
was content to pay Sidney's long services by 
empty compliment, for thus she appeased her 
conscience. Sir Henry continued to be Lord 
President of Wales, and Philip passed some 
months with his father at Ludlow Castle. 



88 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

Mr. Francis Walsingham was resident am- 
bassador at Paris, and Sir Henry took that 
opportunity to have his son travel, Queen Eliz- 
abeth granting him a license of " three servants 
and four horses, with liberty to remain two 
years for the better attaining of foreign lan- 
guages." 

Philip carried letters to Francis Walsingham, 
one of the best and wisest of England's states- 
men. He remained in Paris some time, and 
through the distinction of his family at home 
was appointed by Charles IX. " gentleman in 
ordinary of his bedchamber," by which I infer 
he was admitted to the greater intimacy of the 
king, and it may or may not have involved 
some duties of attendance. 

Philip was in Paris participating in the wed- 
ding ceremonies of Henry of Navarre and Mar- 
garet of Valois. She was a reluctant bride, 
and was by her brother forced to assent at the 
altar. It was a vain and hollow celebration, 
and before it was over Paris was bathed in the 
blood of the Huguenots. Young, happy, and 
gentle, Philip Sidney was there as a British 
subject. He took refuge at the English Em- 
bassy, and to that he owed his life ; while it 
was doubtless to the memory of those horrors 
that later in life he opposed the schemes for 
the marriage of Elizabeth to a French noble- 
man. 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 89 

Lords Burleigh and Leicester despatched a 
formal letter, that is, one authorized by govern- 
ment, asking that " safe conduct out of the 
country be provided for Lord Wharton and 
young Master Philip Sidney." 

Sir Henry Sidney did not think it necessary 
that his son should return to England, and ad- 
vised him to visit Strasburg, Heidelberg, and 
Frankfort. Philip Sidney was but eighteen 
years old when he had an opportunity to wit- 
ness the dissipation and corruption of the 
French court, and the bigotry of the Italians ; 
yet he came home burning with patriotism — a 
stronger, truer Protestant, and with a horror 
of the Italian courts. 

At Frankfort he met a man named Hubert 
Languet, who had escaped from the dangers of 
St. Bartholomew, and who gained a great influ- 
ence over him. Languet was a Frenchman of 
unusual learning, and was a professor of civil 
law in an Italian city. He had made the ac- 
quaintance of Melancthon, who influenced him 
to become an advocate of the Reformed relig- 
ion, and he was recognized as one of the strong- 
est agents of the Protestant powers. He was 
trusted and personally known, not only to 
princes, but to the ablest men of that party in 
Holland, France, and Germany. Languet saw 
that Sidney was a youth of no common ability, 
and he became almost romantically attached to 



90 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

him; and surely how well Sidney must have 
heeded that loving letter of early days, or his 
power to attract the good, noble, and learned at 
so tender an age would have been quite impos- 
sible ! And how much it was to him that he 
was within the charmed influence of such men as 
his father, Languet, and Francis Walsingham ! 
They w^ere to him the armor that increased his 
comeliness of mind and heart, and enabled him 
to resist the temptations of his brilliant and 
scheming uncle, the Earl of Leicester. With 
so many amiable and manly qualities, so much 
that enabled him to select the good and leave 
the evil, — just as a bee extracts honey even from 
poisonous flowers, — so Sidney with a few oth- 
ers travelled and was feted, unharmed, in cities 
of which Roger Ascham, who you remember 
was Queen Elizabeth's tutor, says that in " Ven- 
ice alone he saw more vice in nine days than 
London could exhibit in nine years." Still Sid- 
ney had one fault — that of hasty suspicion. A 
distant relative journeyed with him, and at an 
inn the keeper managed to collect his bill twice, 
whereupon Sidney charged his friend with 
having taken it. Discovering his error he made 
proper acknowledgment, but it seems the only 
blot upon his gracious personality. 

At Venice he had his portrait painted, and 
presented it to his friend Languet, who emphat- 
ically praised its accuracy. What became of it 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 91 

is not known, although it may even yet be dis- 
covered in some old German collection, proudly 
exhibited as a baron or burgher of high degree 
and unusual beauty. The best portrait known 
is now in Warwick Castle, — a very proper 
place, for the Earl of Warwick was an uncle of 
Sidney, — and it represents an elegant man, 
with features so delicate as to seem effeminate, 
although that impression is most emphatically 
contradicted by his history. 

His friends influenced him not to trust his 
immaturity to the allurements of Rome ; and so 
after visiting Genoa, he returned to Venice, 
where he studied most industriously literature 
and politics, and in his '' Defense of Poesy" he 
wittily describes his progress in horsemanship, 
and the master who taught him. 

He was also permitted to attend the Emperor 
Maximilian to Prague, and there he witnessed 
the opening of the Bohemian Diet, and re- 
turned to London by the way of Dresden, 
Heidelberg, Strasburg, and Frankfort. 

He found on his return that one of his sisters 
had died, and that his remaining sister Mary 
had been taken under the special charge of the 
queen, and attached to her person. The time 
for his more mature work was at hand, and he, 
too, entered upon life at court. 

And with entrance at court, and the accept- 
ance of duties for which he had been prepared, 



92 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

came also the time for that phase of life that 
romancers weave into thrilling fiction, which 
will make you more eager than ever to trace 
the paths he trod. 

Just before Philip was twenty-one years old, 
his uncle, the Earl of Leicester, who had 
reached the very pinnacle of Elizabeth's favor, 
arranged to entertain the queen at Kenilworth 
Castle, an estate she had bestowed upon him 
with the title. These festivities lasted nearly 
three weeks, and Philip shared them with all 
the ardor of his youth, and fitness to aid his 
uncle in the task of pleasing so capricious a 
guest as Queen Elizabeth. The court then 
went to Chartley Castle, the seat of the Earl of 
Essex, who was in Ireland. The Countess of 
Essex, in the absence of her husband, received 
the royal guest, and Philip Sidney, having been 
. chosen to attend her Majesty hither, saw for the 
1/ first time Lady ^enelo2^ Devereux, known 
in literature as Sir Philip Sidney's ' i^Ste lla." 
She was at that time only thirteen, and it is 
not likely either of these young people dreamed 
of the future bond that history and poetry 
would record. 

But soon after Essex returned from Ireland 
Philip had become a frequent guest. The year 
after, Essex went as earl-marshal to Ireland, 
and Philip accompanied him. However, as 
Sir Henry Sidney had again been appointed a 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 93 

deput}^ to Ireland, his visit was to his father, al- 
though he had come to regard the earl as his 
future father-in-law. Here Essex died of a 
sudden and painful disease, and on his death he 
expressed his hope that Philip might choose to 
wed his daughter, and said this : '* If he [Sid- 
ney] go on in the course he hath begun, he will 
be as famous and worthy a gentleman as ever 
England bred." What prevented this mar- 
riage must remain uncertain. Lady Essex, 
shortly after her widowhood, married Sidney's 
uncle, the Earl of Leicester, and perhaps then 
learned how poor in worldly goods the Sidneys 
were. Then, too, Sir Philip was full of court, 
diplomatic, and studious interests, and Cupid 
had not pierced the chamber of his heart, where 
lay waiting that spark that in so high-minded a 
character as Sidney could not be lighted by a 
mere worldly ambition. 

But this dreaming fancy was destined to have 
a crude awakening; for one day it Avas an- 
nounced that his Penelope was espoused to a 
man entirely unworthy of her, named Lord 
Rich ; and then Philip felt that he was poor in- 
de^ ! for the slumbering passion burst into a 
flame of remorseful regret, all the more poig- 
nant because he discovered that Penelope had 
patiently and silently loved him. 

Sir Philip's sister Mary's marriage to the 
Earl of Pembroke added to the influence of his 



94 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

family, and yet there were still troubles for his 
gentle, good father. Complaints of his manage- 
ment in Ireland by enemies at cojjrt were cred- 
ited by Elizabeth, to w^hom Sir Henry had to 
send in a claim for sums expended from his 
own private income, because she found at best 
that Ireland was a profitless and troublesome 
portion of her realm. This gave EHzabeth and 
some of her advisers great annoyance, and 
Philip undertook the defence of his father by 
demanding of the accusers proof of the charges. 
Sir Philip in that defence showed how power- 
fully he could use the language of controversy. 

To his father it was reported as an excellent 
discourse, and it was added : " Let no man com- 
pare with Sir Philip's pen." 

During this ordeal he wrote long and cheer- 
ing letters to his father, promising the aid of 
friends to unravel if possible the tangle of a 
captious queen's displeasure, and in one he says : 
" Among which friends, before God, there is 
none proceeds either so thoroughly or so wisely 
as your lady, my mother. For my own part, I 
have had only light from her." 

Sir Philip Sidney's heart must have been 
greatly grieved at this injustice to his father, 
and perhaps we can find more ready excuse for 
a second mistake that he made, in accusing 
hastily his father's secretary of unfaithful con- 
duct. 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 95 

But Molineaux was true to Sir Henry, and 
his reply to Sir Philip is a model of dignity and 
prudent self-assertion. 

Sir Philip must have made an honorable 
apology, as good friendship continued between 
them through many years. 

So absorbed was he in work for England and 
the affairs of Europe, in so far as it bore upon 
his own country's welfare, that he gave neither 
time nor thought to tender sentiments or po- 
etic inspirations. Before his twenty-third 
birthday Elizabeth selected him to convey her 
congratulations to the new Emperor Rudolf o*f 
Hapsburg, and also her condolences to the 
two sons of the Elector Palatine, who had just 
died. 

The Palatinate as well as all the small Ger- 
man states were torn by religious factions, so 
that it was not a question between Catholic 
and Protestant supremacy, but first Calvinism 
and then the tenets of Luther. Fortunately, 
Philip met Languet before he reached Heidel- 
berg, and together they went to Prague, where 
the new emperor was holding his court. 

Sir Philip — as the dignity of his position sug- 
gests he should always now be named, for we 
have left the boy far behind — had asked permis- 
sion to confer with German princes and states- 
men as to a safe and practical means of resist- 
ing the aggressive strength that Jesuits and 



g6 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

Spanish wealth and marriages were spreading 
all through countries where the hereditary 
rulers were Protestants. He urged unity by 
association for political and religious liberty, 
and this might have been accomplished had not 
the Protestants themselves been divided by 
factions almost as fierce as those they had held 
with the Catholic Church itself. They lost 
sight of common good in their own petty dif- 
ferences ; and just as boys and girls dispute the 
turn of a game and throw away its conditions 
for amusement, so each sect tried to reach the 
desired point alone, having no regular path to 
follow, and like the deserters of the game found 
only disappointment and discontent. 

Thus this really wise and far-seeing scheme 
proved to be only a fleeting dream. 

Protestantism was so faint that only a feeble 
breath held it from extinction, and the bent 
that literature was taking toward scientific and 
philosophical subjects diverted public thought 
from the intense excitement of the religious dis- 
putes, and gave it time to revive in, we will 
hope, a more healthful manner. 

So great was Sir Philip's disappointment that 
his proposals met with no success, that he 
wanted to return to England, but Languet ad- 
vised him to wait until he had permission from 
the queen ; heeding which, they went to Heid- 
elberg and Cologne, where orders awaited Sir 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 97 

Philip to go to the Netherlands and congratu- 
late William the Silent, Prince of Orange, upon 
the birth of a son and heir. Here he met distin- 
guished men from other countries, and it was 
reported to Elizabeth that her " Ambassador, 
Sir Philip Sidney, was considered one of the 
ripest and greatest of counsellors of estate in 
all Europe." This was high praise for so young 
a man, and letters from his wise and faithful 
friend Languet showed how much Sidney was 
guarded and advised through that source, and, 
best of all, that he accepted the counsel. Lan- 
guet in one of his letters to Sidney saj^s : " My 
noble Sidney, you must avoid that persistent 
siren, sloth. Think not that God endowed you 
with parts so excellent to the end that you 
should let them rot in leisure. Rather hold 
firmly that He requires more from you than 
from those to whom He has been less liberal of 
talents. 

" There is no reason to fear lest you should 
decay in idleness if you will employ your 
mind ; for in so great a realm as England op- 
portunity will surely not be wanting for its use- 
ful exercise." 

A year later he was offered active service in 
the Low Countries, and weary of the idleness of 
court life he was eager to go, but a gentle and 
earnest appeal from his father induced him to 
yield his own strong desire. His father did 



98 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

not oppose the plan, but presented his depend- 
ence upon his son's presence and protection, 
for they were now so reduced that Sir Henry 
and Lady Mary Sidney had but one room at 
Hampton Court, and noblemen could not work 
and thereby earn an independent and pleasant 
home for themselves, but, like children under 
parental authority, must live as dictated by the 
decree of their king and queen. 

Sir Philip's friend Languet was growing old 
and feeble, and yet so fond was he of Sidney 
that he ventured, not knowing how great the 
risk, to go to England and see this darling of 
his heart. He made the journey and return 
without injury to his health. Languet's wide 
experience of men, cities, and courts gives 
great weight to a letter written to Sidney 
after he reached his home. It is a frank 
avowal of his impressions, and as part of it 
is quoted by Dr Symonds, so will I give it to 
you : 

" I was pleased last winter to find you flour- 
ishing in favor and highly esteemed by all men. 
Yet, to conceal nothing, it appears to me that 
the manners of your court are less manly than 
I could wish ; and the majority of your great 
folk struck me as more eager to gain applause 
by affected courtesy than by such virtues as 
benefit the commonwealth, and are the chief 
ornament of noble minds and high-born per- 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 99 

sonages. It grieved me then, as also your other 
friends, that you should waste the flower of 
your youth in such trifles. I began to fear lest 
your excellent disposition should at last be 
blunted. lest you should come by habit to care 
for things which soften and emasculate our 
minds." 

But Languet did not realize that while a truly 
great mind deplores such conditions, it finds 
employment that resists any contamination, and 
in a stray poem Sir Philip verifies this charac- 
teristic, for he writes that 

" Greater was the shepherd's treasure 
Than this false, fine, courtly pleasure ; " 

and he found, to his comfort, many cultivated 
gentlefolk with whom to spend his leisure, not 
once forgetting his early ties with Fulke Gre- 
ville and Edward Dyer. 

When relating Sir Philip Sidney's escape 
from the dangers of the St. Bartholomew mas- 
sacre, it was stated that to that incident was 
doubtless due his opposition to Queen Eliza- 
beth's marriage to a French prince. And we 
have now reached the point where almost alone 
and in fearless bravery he stood and battled for 
the protection of his religion, his country, and 
his queen. Elizabeth had a French suitor who 
had become the Duke of Anjou when his 



lOO ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

brother Henri had ascended the throne of 
France. 

Anjou hoped the English had forgotten that 
cruel massacre, and much money and time were 
spent in presents and the writing of courtly 
letters, — which, unless there had been an object 
to obtain, neither Catharine de Medici nor her 
sons could have afforded, and their efforts were 
rewarded by a strong inclination upon Eliza- 
beth's part to accept the duke as her husband. 
However, English hearts and memories were 
aroused, and a pamphlet with this quaint title 
appeared : '* The Discovery of the Gaping Gulf, 
whereinto England is like to be swallowed, by a 
French Marriage, if the Lord forbid not the 
Banns, by letting her Majesty see the Sin and 
Punishment thereoff." 

Sympathizers at court censured the audacity 
of the article, and Stubbs and Page, its pub- 
lishers, were condemned each to lose his right 
hand. When Stubbs lost his, he waved his hat 
with the other, and cried '' God save the 
queen ; " while Page bravely pointed to his 
own bleeding hand, and said, *' There lies the 
hand of a true Englishman." 

Elizabeth was naturally surrounded by more 
fiatterers than friends at her court, for vanity 
was her chief weakness. The Earl of Leicester 
opposed the match, but his secret marriage 
with Lady Essex had been discovered, and had 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. lOi 

SO offended the queen that he had been quietly 
banished from court. Sir Philip Sidney had 
already proclaimed his own alarm at the possi- 
ble alliance ; but with so strong an ally as his 
Uncle Leicester taken from him, and having 
come to an open rupture in a heated discussion 
of the subject with the Earl of Oxford, who 
favored the scheme, Sidney's position was one 
of peril and extreme discomfort, and the course 
he pursued with so much fearless advocacy of 
what he felt to be right, is more thrilling in 
detail than fiction can create. 

The Earl of Oxford had called Sidney a 
puppy, while Sidney had accused Oxford of 
false statement, and therefore, according to the 
manner of the times, onlookers expected a duel. 
But the Lords of Council begged Elizabeth to 
mend the breach if possible. She tried to have 
Sidney apologize to a peer of the realm, but he 
proudly though gently reminded her that his 
own birth and heritage made Oxford no "lord 
over him," and '' that they were equals." 

There is no record of any apology on either 
side, but Oxford was believed to have planned 
for Sidney's assassination to relieve his bitter 
resentment. 

Sir Philip continued to enjoy the friendship 
of his queen until 1580, when, as a champion of 
the opposition to the French marriage, and 
commanding a pen with which in diplomatic 



102 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

phraseology no man in England could compete, 
he believed that the hour had come when it 
was his duty to lay his arguments before the 
queen herself. He prepared a careful paper 
or memorial addressed to her, couched in the 
courteous, respectful, and yet brave language 
of entreaty, appeal, and the discussion of every 
point needed to make her understand the solici- 
tude and affectionate desire of her people as a 
nation, as well as her own duty to herself, to her 
subjects, and to her foreign and domestic ties. 
This wonderful address will, a few years later, 
appeal to you as the outcome of his gentle and 
true boyhood, his love as a son, his patriotism 
as a British subject, and last, though far from 
least, as an exponent of his faith in the religion 
that had been taught him at his mother's 
knee. 

The harmony of Sidney's unselfish effort to 
stay the impending danger was apparently lost 
in the discord of political greed and strife for 
preferment at court. The element of sincerity 
and zeal, tempered by the gentle bravery of 
Sir Philip's heart, led him to retire from court 
and go to Wilton, the residence of his sister, 
the Countess of Pembroke, not in the spirit of 
sullen resentment because his loyal effort had 
failed of recognition, but to spend those days in 
a diversion that tended still m.ore to the per- 
fecting of his scholarly attainments and manly 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 103 

qualities. Spenser described Lady Pembroke 
as 

*' The gentlest shepherdess that lives this day, 
And most resembling both in shape and spright 
Her brother dear." 

They were indeed tenderly congenial both 
in affection and literary tastes, and we must 
imagine with what genuine tact this loving 
sister sought to divert the sad disappointment 
of her brother by heartily joining in his work 
of translating the Psalms of David into various 
lyrical measures, and we can form some idea of 
her culture and brightness when we read that 
the first forty-two belong to Philip, while the 
succeeding ones, credited to her, exhibit much 
greater aptness for the work. 

Two years before this Sidney had met Ga- 
briel Harvey, Spenser's great friend, and 
through Harvey Spenser and Sidney first 
formed their happy friendship. These two 
men, Harvey and Spenser, as well Sidney's boy- 
hood's playfellows Fulke Greville and Edward 
Dyer, formed a little *' Academy," or, as we 
would say to-day, a " club," and, guided by 
Harvey — who, we remember, had strong opin- 
ions that he was fond of asserting — they made 
many experiments with their mother-tongue. 
They endeavored to mould it to fit Latin 
rules, with varying success, — only one of their 



I04 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

number, Spenser, bursting the bonds and 
recognizing the possibilities of its unfettered 
consonants. 

While Sidney was at Wilton he also began, 
at his sister's request, the '* Arcadia." From 
the Dedication, or Preface, as we now say, it is 
plain that this was only meant for private 
amusement, and as one of Sidney's dying re- 
quests was to have the manuscript destroyed, 
it shows how sincere he was in his desire to 
have it confined within the circle of his family. 
" The Arcadia " is a very complicated love- 
story, having many digressions from the chief 
points of the narrative, and useful only as a 
type of the literature acceptable in those days. 
Two passages are worthy of mention, the first 
being a description of the home of the heroine, 
which must have been his beloved Penhurst, 
and the other is a prayer uttered by one 
of the characters. This prayer is said to have 
been the one uttered, with but slight alteration, 
by King Charles the First just before his exe- 
cution, and his bitter enemies, the dissenting 
party, used it as proof of his hypocrisy, even 
in his dying hour. Whatever his faults, we 
know he did die bravely and calmly, saying 
wise and gentle things to his poor children, 
and sending manly messages to his absent wife. 
Then, too, he may have read jthat prayer so 
many times for his diversion in happier hours 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 105 

that the appropriate words may have fallen 
unconsciously from his lips. 

While Sidney was at Wilton a young nephew 
was born, named William Herbert — a babe 
who in time became the patron and friend of 
Shakespeare, and to whom it is supposed that 
Shakespeare addressed several of his early son- 
nets. It is also supposed that while Philip was 
away from court and its gaieties his half-prom- 
ised bride, the daughter of the late Earl of 
Essex, was married to another and more pros- 
perous suitor, named Lord Rich, who was the 
son of the Lord Chancellor of England. This 
officer of the realm had just died, bequeathing 
to his son large estates, thus emphasizing the 
name he bore by all that from a worldly view 
it implied; but he was poor indeed in those 
priceless possessions of the heart and mind that 
had been so lavishly bestowed upon Sir Philip 
Sidney. 

This marriage showed Philip the true state 
of his affection for Penelope, and when it be- 
came known that she protested even at the 
marriage ceremony against the union with 
Lord Rich, and that long before her hand 
could have been Philip's had he but asked for 
it, Sidney's disappointment and sorrow nearly 
overcame him. Penelope must have lacked 
high moral tone and force of character, for she 
permitted her unhappy marriage to so degrade 



^ 



100 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

her womanhood that she has left a record all 
unworthy of the noble sentiment that she had 
inspired in England's most gracious courtier. 

In 1580 the Earl of Leicester returned to 
court, having it understood that he would no 
longer openly oppose the French match, and 
he also urged Philip to come with him. This 
step we find referred to in two very long let- 
ters, written to his brother Robert, who was 
travelling. Robert afterwards became the Earl 
of Leicester, but he appears not only to have 
taxed his father's slender purse to the utmost, 
but to have been dependent upon his brother 
Philip for a regular allowance, that must have 
come from brotherly self-denial ; and yet we 
find the gift accompanied by these words : " For 
the money you have received, assure yourself 
(for it is true) there is nothing I spend so pleas- 
eth me as that which is for you." At this time 
also Philip's old and respected friend Languet 
wrote his last letter to the young man whom 
he had so tenderly loved and cherished. He 
congratulated Philip upon his return to court, 
and yet warned him against the snares that 
would there surround him. He knew that a 
young and useful life might be embittered and 
rendered helpless by such a captious queen, 
and he died fully aware of the trouble that was 
in store for both Europe and England. 

On New Year's Day Philip gave the queen a 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 107 

symbolic gift, in gold, of a heart, a chain, and a 
whip with a golden handle, by which he signi- 
fied his submission to her will ; and two months 
after we find him one of a parliamentary com- 
mittee to frame laws against the aggressiveness 
of the Catholics, and for the punishment of 
seditious words or deeds against the queen. 
All this time Elizabeth was wavering between 
her plans to punish Spain for her past depreda- 
tions and the suit of the French prince for her 
hand. When her ministers urged one she 
would fly to the other, and then reverse her 
decision as soon as anj^ possible agreement was 
reached. 

Finally an embassy came from France for the 
purpose of settling the question, and in the 
courtesies extended to the guests Philip played 
a prominent part. He was still bitterly op- 
posed to the match, but covering his opposition 
with discreet silence, he, with others, prepared 
an allegorical spectacle that was to be a last 
protest against the dangerous alliance. 

The costly dress and elegant arrangement of 
this tournament must have been a heavy strain 
upon Sidney's purse, that had never been 
weighted with gold, and after the festivities 
were ended we find Philip earnestly seeking 
occupation. Invitations that were the outcome 
of favorable impress made while abroad poured 
in upon Philip, but turning them all aside he 



io8 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

Still lingered at home true to his country and 
his sovereign. Finally he had the satisfaction 
of seeing the French match abandoned, and was 
one of many English nobles who formed an 
escort to speed the parting guest. 

During the following year further settling of 
the New World was much discussed, and Eliza- 
beth had signed her first charter of lands to 
various nobles, and Philip was one who re- 
ceived three millions of acres — a gift only in 
name, as it must be held by force, and made 
from a wilderness into an uncertain home. 
How little was dreamed of the fabulous value 
of three millions of acres to-day ! Two years 
later Philip attempted to go to America, but 
Elizabeth would not give her consent, where- 
upon Philip sold thirty thousand acres and sub- 
mitted to the order; — yielding also to the 
queen's remonstrances when the crown of Po- 
land was placed at his command. 

Then, too, Philip was about to marry Fran- 
ces Walsingham, daughter of the good man 
who protected Sidney in his youth, when Paris 
was filled with the horrors of St. Bartholomew. 

We find a sad yet manly letter from Philip's 
father. Sir Henry Sidney, regretting his ina- 
bility to do more for his noble and devoted 
son, and he reviews at length his long- and 
unrequited service in Ireland, whereby he 
lost more than he received, because he in no 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 109 

way would take advantage of the possible emol- 
ument of the office which, by crafty manage- 
ment could have been his. He refers to his 
wife's disfigurement by smallpox, through her 
devotion to Elizabeth, and states without com- 
plaint that no recognition of these loyal services 
had ever been made. He shows that he had 
received his estate in Kent, Penhurst, in a sad 
condition of debt, and closes this narrative of 
'' biting necessity " with a blessing upon the 
noble parents and sweet daughter who received 
his son without fortune, and '' but for his good- 
ness alone.'' 

Philip and his wife lived together three years, 
and after his death she married Robert, Earl of 
Essex, who died on the scaffold ; and later she 
became a Catholic and married a nobleman of 
that faith. Philip's daughter married the Earl 
of Rutland ; but Sidney's wife must have been 
a woman of light affections, or she could hardly 
have so easily forgotten the love of such a gen- 
tle, noble knight. 

Of Sidney's writings, *' Arcadia," as we know, 
was for private pastime, to please his favorite 
sister ; and his translation of the Psalms was a 
noble and yet humble effort, whereby he sought 
refuge from disappointment and chagrin ; while 
his letter to his queen and his affectionate de- 
fence of his father stand before the world as 
models of sound judgment and lucid statement, 



no ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

couched in the most courteous and elegant 
phrases into which the English language can 
be constructed. 

Next we find a poem, '' Astrophel and Stella," 
wherein he is believed to have given vent to 
his sorrow and bitter regret at the marriage of 
Lord Rich and Lady Penelope Devereux. It 
certainly is full of sonnets and songs that can 
be thus explained, with that event of his life 
before us, and yet without that knowledge the 
poem is a collection of vividly imaginative 
songs and lyrics, in which he exercises his pen 
with classic Italian and French models of 
rhyme which enabled him to give full play to 
the intensity of his character; for strong indeed 
he was, being a devoted son, a subject loyal 
at all risks, a lover full of romantic devotion 
and manly self-sacrifice, a fond and generous 
brother, a tender husband, and a true friend. 
Hence he could not write other than he did. 

Fulke Greville, Sidney's lifelong friend, re- 
cords that Philip did not write to become 
great, but out of the intensity of his desire to 
be himself, and also to make others great and 
good, made writing one of the agents by which 
he emphasized his opinions; and having refined 
tastes, he employed his natural originality of 
thought and added it to his charmingly per- 
suasive manner and speech to clothe his argu- 
ments in prose or poetry as seemed to him best. 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. in 

Indeed, all critics agree in pronouncing his 
prose writings as his greatest poems ; and we 
learn through his own greatest work, " The 
Defense of Poesy," that he held the prose of 
many writers to be fine poems. 

As Sidney never wrote but for a purpose, by 
which is meant not idly, nor to satisfy a mere 
whim, there was of course a reason for his 
" Defense of Poesy," and it is said to be this : 
A writer of those times, Stephen Gosson by 
name, dedicated to Sidney without his permis- 
sion a tirade against " poets, pipers, and their 
excusers," and he called his book '' The School 
of Abuse." 

Sidney did not at all agree with the sentiment 
expressed in the book, and yet his name had 
been used to authorize a clever attack upon 
poets ; and hence his reply to the false position 
he had been unconsciously placed in. 

First in the Defense he calls himself a 
" paper-blurrer," who must of necessity make a 
defence of his *' unelected vocation," and he 
asks permission to defend that writing which 
he holds in " almost the highest estimation," 
but which " is fallen to be the laughingstock of 
children." He claims that to attack poetry is 
to scorn the earliest germs that we have of 
general culture. He reviews the Greek and 
Roman writers, showing that though the 
strength of their thought was philosophy and 



112 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

history, yet the surface was polished by poetry. 
He shows that Christ used parables and fables 
to strengthen the impression of His divine 
teachings ; that history is confined to facts, and 
philosophy to reason ; while poetry can lead 
the mind into higher, purer realms than the 
stern and ofttimes base records of man ; that 
through poetry can be learned what might be 
— what is attainable ; because poetic thought 
can paint with its glowing words model condi- 
tions which, though possible, do not fully exist. 
He attacks boldly all affectations of speech, 
saying of such writers that he has '' found in 
divers small-learned courtiers a more sound 
style than in some professors of learning." 

Sidney's Sonnet to Sleep is too happy an in- 
spiration to leave for later years before it 
comes to your knowledge. The sonnet is a 
short poem of fourteen lines, and has its rhymes 
adjusted to a particular rule, as we can easily 
see. 

SONNET TO SLEEP. 

*' Come, sleep, O sleep, the certain knot of peace, 

The baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe, 
The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release, 

Th' indifferent judge between the high and low ! 
With shield of proof, shield me from out the prease 

Of those fierce darts Despair at me doth throw ; 
O make me in those civil wars to cease ! 

I will good tribute pay if thou do so. 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 113 

Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed ; 

A chamber deaf to noise, and blind to light ; 
A rosy garland, and a weary head ; 

And if these things, as being thine by right, 
Move not thy heavy grace, thou shalt in me, 
Livelier than elsewhere Stella's image see." 

About the time of Sidney's marriage two 
very grave conditions threatened England, that 
promised to fill the hearts of her people with 
the return of bloodshed and religious conten- 
tion. Spain was combining with the Jesuits to 
strike a deadly blow at religious and political 
liberty, and the suspicious death of the Duke 
of Anjou and the murder of the Prince of 
Orange showed how formidable this network 
of intrigue had become. It seemed absolutely 
necessary that England should give aid to 
Holland, as well as prepare upon the seas 
to attack Spain, by the strengthening of her 
navy. 

In 1584 we find Sidney in the House of Com- 
mons working in the interest of an expedition 
to Virginia, to be commanded by Raleigh. 
This was a favorite project of his, and he ear- 
nestly pleaded that the new country be not an 
asylum for fugitives, but that a true settlement 
be made, composed of varied social elements, 
but all having in view the establishing of a fu- 
ture home, and all conditions for virtuous pros- 



114 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

perity. These measures were first discussed in 
the autumn, and the following spring- of 1585 
Raleigh set out for the new world. Shortly 
after Sidney shared with his uncle Warwick 
the Mastership of Ordnance, and he again 
risked the queen's displeasure b}^ insisting 
upon the better equipment of such stores as 
England might need in case of war. This year 
also, Elizabeth was obliged to give substantial 
aid to the Netherlands, which she did by send- 
ing six thousand men to aid in their defence. 
Meantime Sidney was planning to go with Sir 
Francis Drake to the West Indies, and knowing 
how reluctant the queen would be to have him 
leave the country, he arranged to go quietly 
away ; but Sir Francis Drake, not caring to 
share the honors of the expedition with such a 
brilliant officer as Sir Philip Sidney, be- 
trayed the plan to Queen Elizabeth, and she 
again restrained her most brilliant knight 
from leaving court. It was, however, later 
decided that he should go with his uncle 
Leicester to the Netherlands as Governor 
of Flushing and commander of the fortress 
(Rammekins). 

While he was thus away from home he was 
called upon to bear the sorrow that so lov- 
ing a son must have felt at the death of his 
noble father, and shortly after, of his gentle, 
patient, long-suffering mother, who, born of 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. 115 

the noblest blood, has left a fadeless picture 
of unpretending, brave, and dignified woman- 
hood, whose wise, sweet counsels, and hopeful 
temperament were heeded by both husband 
and children, and thus proved a blessing to 
them all. 

This same summer Sidney surprised and cap- 
tured a small town, for which he was promoted 
to the rank of colonel, which place Elizabeth 
in one of her capricious moods wanted for a 
drunken favorite. Later, in August, they were 
endeavoring to reduce a fort, the entrance to 
which was Zutphen. Siege was laid for sev- 
eral days, and then an engagement took place. 
During the first charge Sidney's horse was 
killed under him, but he immediately mounted 
another. When a third charge was made Sid- 
ney received a wound in the thigh, and his 
frightened horse galloped with him off the 
field. He kept his seat until the horse was 
stopped, and then occurs that never too oft 
repeated story of his gentle goodness of heart : 
** Being very thirsty, he called for a drink ; but 
just as he was about to take it he raised his 
eyes and saw a poor dying soldier being carried 
by, who looked eagerly at the cup in his hand. 
Sidney immediately gave it to the poor man, 
saying, ' Thy necessity is yet greater than 
mine.' " 

He lingered long, submitting to many painful 



Ii6 ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS. 

Operations with bravery that astonished the 
surgeons, for there was then no kindly ether to 
lull the terrible pain. Although a great suf- 
ferer through the three weeks and a half that 
he lived, he gathered his brothers and friends 
around him, made his will, which was full of 
wise and loving arrangements for the wife that 
was by his side, and closed his remarkable life 
with these soothing words to his brother Rob- 
ert, whose grief had overcome him : " Love 
my memory, cherish my friends ; their faith 
to me may assure you they are honest. But 
above all, govern your will and affections by 
the will and word of your Creator : in me 
beholding the end of this world with all her 
vanities." 

Sidney's death was felt in all Europe, for he 
was loved as well as admired and trusted. 

Sidney's thirty-one years of life had been 
full of incidents, so that in recalling them as we 
can hardly fail to do, we learn how grand a 
life not only could be, but was, lived in that 
far-off time ; and we know, too, that with all the 
advantages and progress of to-day it must stand 
always as a model for us, and for future gener- 
ations of boys and girls who as well as we 
can read his history in books and his epitaph in 
St. Paul's Cathedral, where was laid the beau- 
tiful clay that had imprisoned for awhile this 
gem of the sixteenth century. 



SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. I17 j 

I 

Epitaph in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. j 

< 

Sir Philip Sidney, Knight, 'i 

Late Governour of Flushing, in Zealand, ' 

Who received his death's wound 
At a Battell near Zutphen in Gelderland, 
And died at Arnheim, 16 October, 1586. ] 

England, Netherland, the Heavens and the Arts, ' 

The souldiers and the world have made six parts ; 

Of noble Sidney: For who will suppose ' 

That a small heape of stone can Sidney enclose ! i 

England hath his body, for she it fed, 

Netherland his blood in her defense shed, 

The Heavens have his Soule, the Arts have his fame, 

The souldiers the griefe, the world his good name. 



The Best Educational Periodicals. 



The School Journal 

is published weekly at $2.50 a year and is in its 23rd >tjar. 
It is the oldest, best known and widest circulated educational 
weekly in the U. S. The Journal is filled with tdeas that will 
surely advance the teachers' conception of education. The ber-t 
brain work on the work of professional teaching is found in it 
— not theoretical essays, nor pieces scissored out of other 
journals — The School Journal has its own special writers — 
the ablest in the world. 

The Primary School 

is published monthly from September to June at $1.00 a year. 
It is the ideal paper for primary teachers, being devoted almost 
exclusively to original primary methods and devices. Several 
entirely new features this year of great value. 

The Teachers' Institute 

is published monthly, at $1.00 a year. It is edited in the same 
spirit and from the same standpoint as The Journal, and has 
ever since it was started in 1878 been the most popular educa- 
tional monthly published^ circulating in every state. Every line 
is to the point. It is finely printed and crowded with illustra- 
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is covered in each issue. 

EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS. 

This is not a paper, but a series of small monthly volumes 
that bear on Professional Teaching. It is useful for those who 
want to study the foundations of education ; for Normal Schools, 
Training Classes, Teachers' Institutes and individual teachers. 
If you desire to teach professionally you will want it. Hand- 
some paper covers, 64pp. each month. The History, Science, 
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and it also contains ail of the N. Y, State Examination Ques- 
tions and Answers. 

OUR TIMES 

gives a resume of the important news of the month— not the 
murders, the scandals, etc., but the news that bears upon the 
progress of the world and specially written for the school- room. 
It is the brightest and best edited paper of current events pub- 
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Club rates, 25 cents. 

%* Select the paper suited to your needs and send for a free sample. 
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Best Books for Teachers, 

Classified List under Subjects. 

To aid teachers to procure the books best suited to their purpose, "we 
g-ive below a list of our publications classified under subjects. The division 
is sometimes a diflBcult one to make, so that we have in many cases placed 
the same book under several titles; for instance, Currie's Early Education 
appears under PRiNCiPiiES and Practice of Education, and also 
Primary Education. Recent books are starred, thus ♦ 



HISTORY OF EDUCATION, GREAT EDU- 
CATORS, ETC. 

Allen's Historic Outlines ot Education, 
Autobiography of Froebel, 
Browning's Aspects of Education Best edition. 
" Educational Theories. Best edition. 

♦diDUCATioNAii FOUNDATIONS, bound vol. '91-'92, 

* " " " '92-'93, 
Kellogg's Life of Pestalozzi, - _ - _ 
Lang's Comenius, -.,-_-- 

" Basedow, --..---- 

* *' Rousseau and his "Emile" - - _ 

* " Horace Mann, ------ 

* " Great Teachers of Four Centuries, 

* " Herbart and His Outlines of the Science 

of Education. _ _ - - - 
Phelps' Life of David P. Page, - - . . 
Quick's Educational Reformers, Best edition, - 
♦Reinhart's History of Education, » - - 



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Carter's Artificial Stupidity in School, - - paper 
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* '• *' " '93-'93, cl. 
Fitch's Improvement in Teaching, - - - paper 
♦Hail (G. S.) Contents of Children's Minds, - cl. 
Huntington's Unconscious Tuition, - - - paper 
Payne's Lectures on Science and Art of Education, cl. 
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Reinhart's Principles of Education, 
♦Spencer's Education. Best edition. - - - 
Perez's First Three Years of Childhood, - 
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Tate's Philosophy of Education. Best edition. - 
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PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION. 



Allen's Mind Studies for Young Teachers, - cl. .50 

Allen's Temperament in Education, - - - cl. .50 

♦Kellogg's Outlines of Psychology, - - - paper .25 
Perez's First Three Years of Childhood. Best edition, cl. 1.50 
Rooper's Apperception, Best edition, - - cl. .25 
Welch's Teachers' Psychology, ^ - - - cl. 1.25 



Talks on Psychology, 



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Ourrie's Early Education, ----- cl. 1.25 

Fltca's Art of Questioning, - . - - - paper 

*' Art of Securing Attention - - . paper 

** Lecturer on Teaching, - - - - cl. 1.35 

Gladstone's Object Teaching, - - - - paper 

Hughes' Mistakes in Teacning. Best edition. - cl. .50 
" Securing and Retaining Attention, Best ed. cl. .50 

" How to Keep Order. - - - - paper 

Keliogg's School MHnagement. - - - - cl. .75 

McMurry's How to Conduct the Recitation, - paper 

♦Parker's Talks on Pedagogics. cl. 1.50 

" Talks on Teaching, - - - - cl. 1.35 

*' Practical Teacher, ----- cl. 1.50 

* Page's Theory and Practice of Teaching, - cl. .80 
Patridg^e's Quincy Methods, illustrated, - - cl. 1.75 
Quick's How to Train the Memory, - - - paper 

* Rein's Pedagogics, ------- cl. .75 

*iteinhart's Principles of Education, - - cl, .35 

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Southwick's Quiz Manual of Teaching, - - cL .75 
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Johnson's Education by Doing, - - - 

*Kellogg's How to Write Compositions - 
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Autobiography of Froebel, - - - - cl. .50 

Hoffman's Kmdergarten Gifts, - - - - paper 

Johnson's Education by Doing, - - - - cl. .50 

*Kilburn's Manual of Elementary Teaching - 1.50 

Parker's Talks on Teaching, - - - - cl. 1.25 

Patridge's Quincy Methods, - - - - cl. 1.75 

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" Grube Idea in Primary Arithmetic, - d. .30 

♦Sinclair's First Years at School, - - : • cL .75 



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*Larsson's Text-Book of Sloyd, . - - - cl. 1.50 1.30 .15 

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QUESTION BOOKS FOR TEACHERS. 

Analytical Question Series. Geography, - - cl. .50 .40 .06 

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♦EDXjCATTONAii FOUNDATIONS, bound vol. '91-'93, paper .60 pd. 

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Groff's School Hygiene, ----- paper .15 pd. 

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SINGING AND DIALOGUE BOOKS. 

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j^" 100 page classified, illustrated, descriptive Catalogue of the above 
and many other Method Books, Teachers' Helps, sent free. 100 page Cat- 

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E. L. KELLOGG & CO., New York & Chicago. 



SEND ALL ORDERS TO 

6 E. L. KELLOOG <& CO., NEW YORK d CHICAGO, 

AUens Mind Studies for Young Teac h- 

ERS. By Jerome Allen, Ph.D., Associate Editor of the 
School Journal, Prof, of Pedagogy, Univ. of City of 
N. Y. 16mo, large, clear type, 128 pp. Cloth, 50 cents ; to 
teachers, 40 cents ; by mail, 5 cents extra. 

There are many teachers who 
Know little about psychology, 
and who desire to be better in- 
formed concerning its princi- 
ples, especially its relation to the 
work of teaching. For the aid 
of such, this book has been pre- 
pared. But it is not a psychol- 
ogy — only an introduction to it, 
aiming to give some funda- 
mental principles, together with 
something concerning tlie phi- 
losophy of education. Its meth- 
od is subjective rather than ob- 
* "• t=a, ^ -. f y; jective, leading the student to 

\ V H / * 1/ watch mental processes, and 

"^1 ^ ^ Y ^ ^ draw his own conclusions. It 

is wricten in language easy to 
be comprehended, and has many 
Verome Allen, Ph.D.,Associate Editor practical illustrations. It will 
of the Journal and Institute. aid the teacher in his daily work 
in dealing with mental facts and states. 

To most teachers psychology seems to be dry. This book shows 
how it may become the most interesting of all studies. It also 
shows how to begin the knowledge of self. " We cannot know 
in others what we do not first know in ourselves." This is the 
key-note of this book. Students of elementary psychology will 
appreciate this feature of " Mind Studies." 
ITS CONTENTS. 




CHAP. 

I. How to Study Mind. 
II. Some Facts in Mind Growth. 
in. Development. 
IV. Mind Incentives. 
V. A few Fundamental Principles 

Settled. 
VI. Temperaments. 

VII. Training of the Senses. 

VIII. Attention. 
IX. Perception. 

X. Abstraction. 

XI. Faculties used in Abstract 
Thinking. 



CHAP. , • 

XII. From the Subjective to the 
Conceptive. 

XIII. The Will. 

XIV. Diseases of the Will. 
XV. Kinds of Memory. 

XVI. The Sensibilities. 
XVII. Relation of the Sensibihties 

to the Will. 
XVIII. Training of the Sensibilities. 
XIX. Relation of the Sensibilities 
. to Morality. 
XX. The Imagination. 
XXI. Imagination in its Maturity. 
XXn Education of the Moral Sense. 



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E. L. KELLOGG & CO., NEW YORK & CHICAGO. 9 

Brownings Educational Theories. 

By Oscar Beq-wntng, M.A., of King's College, Cambridge, 

Eng. No. 8 of Beading Circle Library Series. Cloth, 16mo, 

237 pp. Price, 50 cents; to teachers, 40 cents; by mail, 5 

cents extra. 

fbis work has been before the public some time, and for a 

general sketch of the History of Education it has no superioi. 

Our edition contains several new features, mailing it specially 

valuable as a text-book for Normal Schools, Teachers' Classes, 

Reading Circles, Teachers' Institutes, etc., as well as the student 

of education. These new features are: (1) Side-heads giving the 

subject of each paragraph; (2) each chapter is followed by an 

analysis; (3) a very' full new index; (4) also an appendix on 

"Froebel," and the " American Common School." 

OUTLINE OF CONTENTS. 

I. Education among the Greeks — Music and Gymnastic Theo- 
ries of Plato and Aristotle; II. Roman Education — Oratory; III. 
Humanistic Education; IV. The Realists — Ratich and Comenius; 
V. The Naturalists — Rabelais and Montaigne, VI. English 
Humorists and Realists — Roger Ascham and John Milton; VII. 
Locke; VIII. Jesuits and Jansenists ; IX. Rousseau; X. Pes- 
talozzi; XL Kant, Fichte, and Herbart; XII. The English Pub- 
lic School ; XIII. Froebel ; XIV. The American Common 
School. 

PRESS NOTICES. 

Ed. Courant. — " This edition surpasses others in its adaptability to gen- 
eral use." 

CoL School Journal.—" Can be used as a text-book in the History of 
Education." 

Pa. Ed. News.—" A volume that can be used as a text-book on the His- 
tory of Education." 

School Education, Minn.—" Begrinning with the Greeks, the author pre^ 
eeuts a ijrief but clear outline of the leading educational theories down to 
the present time." 

Ed. Review, Can.— "A book like this, introducing the teacher to the great 
minds that iiave worked in the sam*- field, cannot but be a powerful stimulus 
to him in his work." 



SEND ALL ORTHSRS Trt 

18 jUJ. L. KELL^QO & CO., NEW lOIiK & CHICAGO, 

Hughes ^Mistakes in Teacbing, 

By James J. Hughes, Inspector of Schools, Toronto, Canada. 

Cloth, l6mo, 115 pp. Price, 50 cents; to teachers, 40 cents; 

by mail, 5 cents extra. 

Thousands of copies of the old 
edition have been sold. The new 
edition is worth double the old; 
the material has been increased, 
restated, and greatly improved 
Two new and important Chapten 
have been added on "Mistakes ir 
Aims," and "Mistakes in Moral 
Training." Mr. Hughes says in his 
preface: "In issuing a revised edi- 
tion of this book, it seems htting to 
acknowledge gratefully the hearty 
appreciation that has been accorded 
it by American teachers. Realiz- 
ing as I do that its very large sale 
indicates that it has been of service 
to many of my fellow-teachers, I 
have recognized the duty of enlarg- 

' j^^ -;j:.^j'isi=-"-^5^?$>4^ ing and revising it so as to make it 

s^^ ^ "■%■' :^ g^ll more helpful in preventing 

James L. Hughes, Inspector of the common mistakes in teaching 
Schools, Toronto, Canada. ^^^ training. " 

This is one of the six books recommended by the N. Y. State 
Department to teachers preparing for examination for State cer- 
tificates. 

CAUTION. 

Our new authorized copybight edition, entirely rewritten hy 
ihe author, is the only one to huy. It is beautifully printed and 
hound. Oet no other. 




CONTENTS OF OUR NEW EDITION. 

Chap. I. 7 Mistakes in Aim. 
Chap. II. 21 Mistakes in School Management. 
Chap. III. 24 Mistakes in Discipline. 
Chap. IV. 27 Mistakes in Method. 
Chap. V. 13 Mistakes in Moral Training. 
Chaps. I. and V. are entirely new-^ 



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20 E L. KELLOOO & CO., NEW YORK & CHICAGO. 

Hughes Securing and Retaining Atten- 

TTON. By James L. Hughes, Inspector Schools. Toronto, 
Canada, author of "Mistakes in Teaching." Cloth. 116 pp. 
Price, 50 cents; to teachers, 40 cents; by mail, 5 cents extra. 

This valuable little book: has already become widely known to 
American teachers. Our new edition has been almost entirely 
re-written, and several new important chapters added. It is the 
only AUTHORIZED COPYRIGHT EDITION. CautioTi. — Buy no other. 

WHAT IT CONTAINS. 

I. General Principles; II. Kinds of Attention; III. Characteristics of Good 
Attention ; IV. Conditions of Attention ; V. Essential Characteristics of tlie 
Teacher in Securing and Retaining Attention; VI. How to Control a Class; 
VII. Methods of Stimulating and Controlling a Desire for Knowledge; VIII. 
How to Gratify and Develop the Desire for Mental Activity; IX. Di.=;tracting 
Attention; X. Training the Power of Attention; XI. General Suggestions 
regarding Attention. 

TESTIMONIALS. 

S. P. Robbins, Pros. McGill Normal School. Montreal, Can., writes to Mr. 
Hughes:— "It is quite superfluous for me to say that your little books are 
admirable. I was yesterday authorized to put the ' Attention ' on the list 
of books to be used in the Normal School next year. Crisp and attractive 
in style, and mighty by reason of its good, sound common-sense, it is a 
book that every teacher should know." 

Popular Educator (Boston):—" Mr. Hughes has embodied the best think- 
ing of his life in these pages." 

Central School Journal (la.).—" Though published four or five years 
since, this book has steadily advanced in popularity." 

Educational Courant (Ky.).— "It is intensely practical. There isn't a 
mystical, muddy expression in the book." 

Educational Times (England).—" On an important subject, and admir- 
ably executed." 
School Guardian (England) —" We unhesitatingly recommend it." 
New England Journal of Education.— " The book is a guide and a 
manual of special value." 

New York School Journal. — " Every teacher would derive benefit fronc 
reading this volume." 

Chicago Educational Weekly.— " The teacher w^ho aims at best sue- 
cjss should study it." 

Phii. Teacher.—" Many who have spent months in the school-room would 
be benefited by it." 

Maryland School Journal.—" Always clear, never tedious." 

Va, Ed. Journal.— " Excellent hints as to securing attention." 

Qihio Educational Monthly.— "We advise readers to send for a copy." 

Pacific Home and School Journal.—" An exrellent little manual." 

Prest. James H. Hoose, State Normal School. Cortland, N. Y., says:— 

"The book must prove of great benefit to the profession." 
Supt. A. W. Edson, Jersey City, N. J., says:—" A good treatise has long 

been needed, and Mr. Hughes has supplied the want." 



SENt) ALL ORDERS TO 

B. L. KELLOGG & CO., N EW YORK cfc CHICAGO. 53 

Standard "Black "Board Stencils. 

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we are manufacturing an entirely new line of 
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Our standard blackboard stencils are made 
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505 North America. 

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508 Asia. 

509 Africa. 

510 Australia. 

511 British Isles. 

512 Mexico. 

513 Canada. 

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527 Arkansas. 551 N. Hamp. 

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530 Conn. 554 New York. 

531 Dakota. 555 Nebraska. 

532 Delaware. 556 Nevada. 

533 Florida. 557 N. Carolina. 

534 Georgia. 658 Ohio. 

535 Idaho. 559 Oregon. 

536 Illinois. 560 Penn. 

537 Indiana. 561 R. Island. 

538 Ind. Ter. 562 S. Carolina. 

539 Iowa. 563 Tenn. 

540 Kansas. 564 Texas. 

541 Kentucky. 565 Utah. 

542 Louisiana. 566 Vermont. 

543 JIaine. 567 Virginia. 

544 Maryland. 568 Wash. Ter. 

545 Mass. 569 West Virginia. 

546 Michigan. 570 Wisconsin. 

547 Mississippi. 571 Wyoming. 

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517 Southern States (three groups). 
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518 No. II.— W. Va., Va., N. C, S. C, 
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519 No. III.— Ark., La., Tex., and In- 
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520 Central States (two groups). No. 
I— Minn., Wis., Mich., la.. 111., Ind., 
Ohio, Mo., and Ky. 

521 No. II.— Dak. Ter., Minn., Wis., 
Mich., Neb., la., 111., Ind,, Ohio, Kan., 
Mo., and Ky. 



I 522 Western States (two groups). 

I No. L— Wash. Ter., Idaho, Mon. Ter., 

Dak. Ter., Oregon, Wyoming Ter., Neb., 

Cal., Nev., Utah, Col., Kan., Arizona 

Ter., N. Mex., Ind. Ter., and Tex. 

523 No. II.— Wash. Ter., Idc,ho Ter., 
Mon. Ter., Oregon, Wyoming Ter., Cal., 
Nev., Utah Ter., Col., Arizona Ter., New 
Mex. 

LARGE MAPS. 
These stencils make maps as large as 
the largest wall maps. 

572 United States, 34x56 inches. Price, 
do cents. 

573 Mercator's Eastern and Western 
Hemisphere with Western Hemispheie 
repeated, 34x56. Price, 50 cents. 

HISTORICAL MAPS. 

Please order by number. 

600 Mercator's Eastern and Western 
Hemispheres with the Western Hemis- 
phere repeated, showing all the routes 
of the early voyagers to A.merica and 
around the world. Price, 50 cents. 

601 Large map of the U. S. showing 
territorial growth. Price, 25 cents. 

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 
Five maps, each 24x36 in. Price, 10 
cents each. Set, 50 cents. 

602 Map of Va.and Pa., showing Wash- 
ington's home, route taken in his jour- 
ney to St. Pierre, Ft. Duquesne. 

603 Map of N. Y., showing all forts on 
the great lakes and L.ike Champlaiii. 

604 Canada, showing all the principal 
places and Nova Scotia. 

605 Map .showing British possessions 
before the War. 

606 Map showing British possessions 
after the War. 

WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 
Five maps, each 24x36 in. Price, 50 
cents each. 50 cents a set. 

607 Boston and vicinity. N. Y. and 
vicinitv. 

60S Phila., Trenton, Valley Forge, 
Monmouth. 

609 Burgoyne's Invasion. 

610 Yorktown and Southern Battle 
Fields. 

611 Map showing Territory of U. S. at 
close of the War. 

WAR OF 1812. 
Three maps, size 24x36 in. each. Price, 
10 cents each. 

612 Great Lakes and vicinitj% showing 
battle fields. 

613 Washington and vicinity. 

614 New Orleans. 

CIVIL WAR. 
Size, 24x36 in. Price, 10 cents each. 
f 1.00 a set. 

615 U. S., showing territory seceded. 

616 Washington and vicinity. 

617 Richmond and vicinity. 

618 Charleston Harbor. 

619 Miss. River, New Orleans, etc 

620 Gettysburg Campaign. 



SEND ALL ORDERS TO 

E. L. KELLOGG & GO., NEW YORK & CHICAGO. 



55 



621 Sherman's March. 

622 Battle Fields of Ky. and Tenn. 

623 Battle Field of Va. 

624 Petersburg and Appotoiuax. 

MISCEIiliANEOUS. 
Size, 17x22 inches. Price, singly, 5 
cents each. In groups with one extra 
design, 25 cents. 

Group One— CHILDREN, 
i In a Swing. 4 Kile Flying. 

2 Jumping Rope. 5 Skating. 

3 Leap Frog. 

Group Two— CHILDREN. 

6 Feeding Doves. 9 On a Toboggan. 

7 RoUingtheHoop.lO Where am I ? 

8 Blowing Soap 

Bubbles. 
Group Three— CHILDREN. 

11 Two Lillies. 14 Fast Friends. 

12 Training Pussy. 15 Dance, Little 

13 What Do I Care. Baby. 

Group Four— CHILDREN. 

16 Oh, How High ! 18 " My Pony Loves 

17 Naughty Tab Sugar." 

and Dash. 19 Can I Get Them? 

20 Mud Pies. 
Group Five— CHILDREN. 

21 Saved From 23 Learning to 

Drowning. Read. 

22 St. Bernard Dog 24 Who Broke the 

and Boy. Window ? 

25 The Milkmaid. 
Group Six-CHILDREN. 

26 Wide Awake. 29 ThePetSquirreL 

27 Fast Asleep. 30 Learning to 

28 Have You Been Walk. 

Bathing ? 
Group Seven— ON THE SEA-SHORE. 
81 Star Fish. 34 Jelly Fish. 

32 Hermit Crab. 35 Red Coral. 
83 Lobster. 

Group Eight-PRESIDENTS. 

36 Washington. 39 Lincoln. 

37 Jefferson. 40 Grant. 

38 Jackson. 

Group Nine— POETS. 

41 Whittier. 44 Bryant. 

42 Longfellow. 45 Tennyson. 

43 Emerson. 

Group Ten— DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

46 Cow and Calf. 49 Camel. 

47 Horse and Colt. 50 Reindeer. 

48 Elephant and 

Baby. 
Group Eleven-DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

51 Dog. 54 Pig. 

52 Cat. 55 Goat. 

53 Sheep. 

Group Twelve— SMALL ANIMALS. 

56 Rabbit. 59 Mouse. 

57 Bat. 60 Lynx. 

58 Rat. 

Group Thirteen— LARGE WILD ANI- 
MALS. 

61 Polar Bear. 64 Rhinoceros. 

62 Lion. 65 Hippopotamus. 

63 Lioness. 

And many others. Full 



Group Fourteen— ANIMALS. 

66 Wolf. 69 Kangaroo. 

67 Fox. 70 Donkey. 

68 Hyena. 

Group Fifteen— FLOWERS. 

71 Wild Rose. 74 Laurel Spray. 

72 Calla Lily. 75 Pear Blossom. 

73 Solomon's Seal. 

Group Sixteen— FLOWERS. 

76 Wood Violet. 79 Morning Glories. 

77 Pond Lilies. 80 Fuchsias. 

78 Roses. 

Group Seventeen— BIRDS. 

81 Quails. 84 Stork. 

82 Woodcocks. 85 Swan. 

83 Eagle Flying, 

Group Eighteen— OLD AND YOUNG. 

86 Hen and Chick- 88 Duck and Duck- 

ens, lings. 

87 Goose and Gos- 89 Owl and Owlets. 

lings. 90 Bird and Young. 

Group Nineteen— BUILDINGS. 

91 Light-house. 94 Bird House. 

92 Castle. 95 Fort, 

93 Wind Mill. 

Group Twenty— PATRIOTIC LIST. 

96 The American 99 The American 

Flag. Eagle. 

97 Liberty Bell. 100 Goddess of Lib- 

98 U. S. Coat of erty. 

Arms. 

BORDERS. 

101 Spiral Curves. 

102 Greek Fi-et. 

103 Triangular Combinations. 

104 Greek Fret. 

105 Greek Pattern Anthimion. 

106 Egyptian Lotos. 

107 Ivy Leaf. 

108 Dog Wood. 

109 Holly Leaf and Berries. 

110 Holly Leaf and Berries. 

ROLLS OF HONOR. 

111 Script Letters, plain. 

112 Script Letters, fancy. 

113 Old English Letters. 

114 German Text. 

115 American Eagle on Shield. 

116 Excelsior. 

WRITING CHARTS. 

117 Capitals and Small Letters. 

The letters are nearly 6 in. high. Size 
of Stencils 9x36 in. The set contains 11 
charts. Price, 50 cents a set. 

PHYSIOLOGY CHARTS. 

Six charts, size 24x36 in. each. Price, 
10 cents each. Set 50 cents. 

118 Bones. 121 Lungs. 

119 Skull. 123 Liver. 

120 Heart. 124 Intestines. 
NATURAL HISTORY CHARTS. 

Price each, 10 cents, except No. 136. 
Size 24x36 inches. 8 nos. 

catalogue on application. 



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